Written by: Daniel Ross and MariaElena Rodriguez
There are many important actors in achieving positive social and systems change. Government at all levels, media, corporations, large nongovernmental institutions, philanthropy, and academia are all important levers. But for much of our work DAISA Enterprises focuses on community accountable organizations (CAOs), particularly those embedded in, accountable to, and led by disinvested communities of color. We see CAOs as critical agents for both local and, when collaborating, large-scale change that is equitable, inclusive, and impacts people at the community level. We are, in fact, very wary of change initiatives that don’t have deliberate strategies to fully engage CAOs as key partners and decision-makers.
DAISA Enterprises is a national team of consultants and organizers working to advance equity at the intersection of food, culture, and health. We work with leading foundations, government agencies, and social enterprises on field scan research, funding initiative implementation and grantee support, as well as impact evaluation. Through the initiatives where we work with cohorts of grantees and national coalitions, we have had the privilege of supporting hundreds of CAOs around the country[DR1] .
We use the phrase Community Accountable Organizations (CAO) to describe organizations that are not only embedded in disinvested communities of color, but also truly led by and accountable to the people of these communities. There are many Community Based Organizations (CBOs) working in communities of color, but not all are directly accountable to their community. CAOs can be distinguished by many of the following characteristics:
This definition for CAOs we use here is inspired by the work of the Equitable Food Oriented Development (EFOD) collaborative, which developed a clear rubric to distinguish the deep community change work of their members from more symptomatic food access efforts.
There are many reasons why CAOs are so important to real systems change. CAOs excel in:
CAOs are the best mixture of experienced staff with community accountability, able to bridge the local context with broader issues.
It is all too common for those wielding power and resources to overlook CAOs. They are typically small, locally-focused, and all too often lack staff capacity, often limiting their ability to participate in large state and national policy change. They usually also lack staff and expertise for impactful communications work, making them less prominent in the vision of larger institutions and policy makers. It can be very easy for funders to primarily engage larger institution leaders and more visible stakeholders when thinking about national systems change initiatives.
These concerns are real – CAOs are chronically under-resourced, and they are very focused on the needs of their community, which are often immediate and consuming. However, in our experience, CAO leaders inherently understand that the issues they face in their communities stem from deeply-rooted structural barriers and historical disinvestment. These leaders want to collaborate with their peers to challenge these systems, and their knowledge and lived experience make them the best-suited to lead systems change.
CAOs can be effectively supported to lead systems change initiatives by integrating some of the following principles:
1. Supporting self-determination and decision-making – ensuring that there is an effective leadership body that is driven by CAO leaders
2. Providing capacity-support grants – understanding that systems change or policy advocacy work requires a time commitment in addition to funded and non-funded community initiatives
3. Staffing support - providing additional staffing capacity to reduce the organizational and administrative workload of of busy community-embedded leaders
4. Patience - taking the necessary time to build trust with CAO leaders and understanding that this work is iterative and will necessarily shift to address emergent community needs
DAISA Enterprises is a national team of consultants and organizers working to advance equity at the intersection of food, culture, and health. We work with leading foundations, government agencies, and social enterprises on field scan research, funding initiative implementation and grantee support, as well as impact evaluation. Through the initiatives where we work with cohorts of grantees and national coalitions, we have had the privilege of supporting hundreds of CAOs around the country[DR1] .
We use the phrase Community Accountable Organizations (CAO) to describe organizations that are not only embedded in disinvested communities of color, but also truly led by and accountable to the people of these communities. There are many Community Based Organizations (CBOs) working in communities of color, but not all are directly accountable to their community. CAOs can be distinguished by many of the following characteristics:
- organization leadership, including primary staff and board, are reflective of community members, community members are represented on the board of directors
- community members are central to decision-making in all programs
- the organization explicitly incorporates its place-based community culture and identity into its mission and activities
- regardless of the sector, the CAO utilizes community organizing strategies
- most CAOs also have a clear historical analysis for their community and they explicitly frame their work as seeking justice.
This definition for CAOs we use here is inspired by the work of the Equitable Food Oriented Development (EFOD) collaborative, which developed a clear rubric to distinguish the deep community change work of their members from more symptomatic food access efforts.
There are many reasons why CAOs are so important to real systems change. CAOs excel in:
- True listening to community needs and aspirations – they have formal and informal ways of gathering community input, engaging community in planning and design, and they are proximate to the problems and community members who know what needs to be done.
- Community mobilization – they train community leaders, they have organizing staff, they focus on the issues community members most care about.
- Powerful innovations – they design solutions that are particular to their communities, they adapt outside solutions to their needs, because they have highly limited resources they apply more creativity.
- Systems Thinking/Holistic – while many may focus on one sector (i.e. housing or food), they think community-wide and systemically because they understand the intersectional needs of communities and the complexities of effective solutions.
- Nimbleness - they flex to address needs and opportunities in times of crisis when bigger institutions can’t or won’t. During the COVID 19 pandemic, CAOs have been addressing community food needs in a way that larger institutions couldn’t.
- Representative and accountable – CAO leaders live and work every day in the communities impacted, their constituents know and respect them, community members are on their organizational boards. While not usually elected like local political officials, they are trusted and connected to local communities in a way that most politicians are not.
- Asset-building – CAOs develop and protect important community assets of land and buildings for community use. They channel community history and culture to support community identity and pride. They invest in community infrastructure and people with long-term vision.
CAOs are the best mixture of experienced staff with community accountability, able to bridge the local context with broader issues.
It is all too common for those wielding power and resources to overlook CAOs. They are typically small, locally-focused, and all too often lack staff capacity, often limiting their ability to participate in large state and national policy change. They usually also lack staff and expertise for impactful communications work, making them less prominent in the vision of larger institutions and policy makers. It can be very easy for funders to primarily engage larger institution leaders and more visible stakeholders when thinking about national systems change initiatives.
These concerns are real – CAOs are chronically under-resourced, and they are very focused on the needs of their community, which are often immediate and consuming. However, in our experience, CAO leaders inherently understand that the issues they face in their communities stem from deeply-rooted structural barriers and historical disinvestment. These leaders want to collaborate with their peers to challenge these systems, and their knowledge and lived experience make them the best-suited to lead systems change.
CAOs can be effectively supported to lead systems change initiatives by integrating some of the following principles:
1. Supporting self-determination and decision-making – ensuring that there is an effective leadership body that is driven by CAO leaders
2. Providing capacity-support grants – understanding that systems change or policy advocacy work requires a time commitment in addition to funded and non-funded community initiatives
3. Staffing support - providing additional staffing capacity to reduce the organizational and administrative workload of of busy community-embedded leaders
4. Patience - taking the necessary time to build trust with CAO leaders and understanding that this work is iterative and will necessarily shift to address emergent community needs
It is crucial to provide these supports and uplift the leadership of CAOs in communities across the US. In nearly all of our projects DAISA seeks to aid the work of CAOs as key agents of change. In the 5 year Fresh, Local, Equitable (FreshLo) funding initiative of the Kresge Foundation that DAISA served as National Program Office for, 23 CAOs from around the country utilized both cultural strategies and food systems enterprises to make their communities healthier, and supported by DAISA, worked as a cohort to have input on funding program evaluation and program design. The Equitable Food Oriented Development Collaborative, comprised of BIPOC organization leaders from around the country, has developed the national EFOD Fund which makes integrated non-extractive investments into food systems infrastructure projects, with decisions made by a Community Investment Committee. DAISA has supported the creation of the Fidelity, Equity, Dignity (FED) Collective to unite BIPOC-led CAOs in the Food as Medicine field in connecting local work to national policy initiatives, shifting field narratives, promoting peer knowledge exchange, accessing additional funding and opportunities, and creating a much-needed space of rest and respite for BIPOC leaders in the field.
For large-scale systems change, multiple levers are important - you need media attention, policy changes with agency leaders and legislators to institutionalize change, and often research supporting the changes needed. But for change to address underlying systems of oppression it is important that the voices and brilliance of the people most impacted are front and center, that communities most impacted are the agents of the solutions. For this, you need organized networks of community accountable organizations driving change both locally and nationally. COAs can and should be core to any systems change initiative in the US.
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