The Advancement Project is a resource
and bridge organization for people working to solve public policy problems, large and small, across lines of race, ethnicity and culture. It was founded by three lawyer-advocates all from the NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fund (LDEF) who decided that litigation was often not the best solution to solving public policy problems. They believed that inter-cultural, inter-disciplinary efforts to resolve conflict and reach
consensus as a more promising approach. "We gradually found we were doing inter-cultural, inter-disciplinary public policy problem solving," says co-founder Constance L. Rice, former director of NAACP LDEF's Los Angeles
Office. "And it worked better than we could have hoped. We are developing that model further with the Advancement Project."Public policy problems come in all sizes and complexities, from the re-assignment of a single
school principal to the design of a regional transportation system to the shaping of a national budget policy. Many if not most of these problems have the potential for becoming a source of inter-group conflict.
In Los
Angeles, the challenge is especially severe and constant, but the syndrome afflicts the state as a whole. The Public Policy Institute of California ranks racial and ethnic tension as one of the major factors keeping the state
from developing and adopting good policy solutions that is badly needed. A California State legislator, meeting with the Advancement Project agreed, "We ought to get together in our caucus, agree on a program and move it
forward. But we don't. Racial and ethnic division is one big reason."
Some of the Advancement Project's work developed from requests for assistance by community members and public sector decision makers who are
experiencing similar kinds of conflicts. When the reform of the Los Angeles City charter led to inter-group tensions recently, participants in that process asked the Project to become involved. In its first six months,
the Project has also been consulted about regional transportation policy, school board issues, the Los Angeles Police Department, and inter-group violence in LA's housing projects.
The Advancement Project utilizes an
inter-disciplinary approach in its work. The Project serves as a resource and bridge providing technical assistance and consultation while also working to network and provide organizational development assistance to
those working within these fields.
The Project develops other initiatives pro-actively. In this category, the Project focuses on higher education policy, K-12 approaches for urban schools, and inclusive electoral
systems. Whether reacting to a crisis or planning a long-term project, there are two threshold questions the Advancement Project takes into consideration before becoming involved: 1). whether there is a solution to the
problem that can advance the values of opportunity and inclusion, and 2) whether the Advancement Project can help foster that solution.
The Advancement Project's commitment to advancing opportunity and inclusion merits
emphasis. In this substantive, "core value" commitment the project differs from groups that pursue the more value-neutral disciplines of mediation and dispute resolution. Mediation and dispute resolution are critically
important disciplines, and the Advancement Project has turned to these kinds of experts at appropriate points in the problem-solving process. However, the Advancement Project itself is interested not only in resolving and
avoiding conflict, but in doing it in a way that advances these two substantive goals. This is understandable, given the principals' grounding in racial justice work for so many years.
The principals have evolved from
advocates battling for the values of inclusion and opportunity to problem solvers looking for consensus solutions that can advance these values more broadly and peacefully. But they still have the same dream they have always
had, of a society in which every child can be who he or she was created to be and in which no person's life is distorted by group-based bias or animosity. In fact, the Project intends not only to reduce conflict and advance
these long standing goals but to renew commitment to the civil rights vision generally. The principals believe that they can enrich the racial justice movement by broadening its messages, capacities and allies.
Over the
next year, the Advancement Project will be engaging in three different kinds of efforts: Intervention (re-active) projects whose contours cannot be predicted in advance; pro-active projects, including higher education policy, urban
K-12 issues, and governmental structures; and a group of projects whose working title is "Support for (and from) Other Problem Solvers." In this last category, the Project will work with other individuals and groups who are
also trying to develop inter-cultural and inter-disciplinary approaches to public policy problem solving. With these partners and allies it will explore joint efforts and the sharing of ideas and resources.
For
more information on The Advancement Project contact Mollie Munger by phone at 213-615-1662, by email at mmunger@advanceproj.com or write them at : The Advancement Project, 801 S. Grand Ave, Suite 1900, Los Angeles, CA 90017.
