Kendeda at the Forefront of Equity in Atlanta

This is part of our 2023 “Holiday Highlights” series to showcase some of the 

partners and projects Chrysalis Lab has worked with this year.

 

Over the last few years Chrysalis Lab has been honored to work with the Kendeda Fund which has been at the forefront of reimagining a more equitable Atlanta. In 2016, several years before 2020, the infamous “year of racial reckoning”, Kendeda  launched  its ‘Atlanta Equity’ portfolio to support the sustainability of Black and Brown communities through investments in its leaders. Kendeda long realized it couldn’t tackle all the issues confronting Atlanta’s most vulnerable populations. Accordingly, the Fund strategically decided to engage and uplift a group of “changemakers and pacesetters” – emerging community leaders who could leverage their individual and institutional skills to disrupt the status quo by influencing policy makers and funders, challenge long-held assumptions, and incubate bold, innovative ideas. 

“We resolved that by the time we completed our spend out, we would have helped establish a series of substantive community-wide conversations wherein grantee partners have defined seats at the tables of power, and institutional voices that are clear, convincing, and resonant”, said Trene Taylor, Kendeda’s  Program Officer who led and managed its Atlanta Equity portfolio.

As part of the Atlanta Equity portfolio, Chrysalis Lab facilitated a series of  retreats for the portfolio’s nonprofit leaders. In 2023, concurrent with Kendeda’s plans to sunset and desire to capture its work with its grantee partners,  Chrysalis Lab conducted individual interviews with the Fund’s Atlanta Equity leaders. The focus of these discussions was to capture their reflections of their work over the last few years and its impact on the community and the systems they sought to change. 

The final product culminated in the publication of a book that creatively captured their ruminations – from inequity in education to tackling affordable housing, and everything in between. It is hoped that documenting the journeys of these pivotal leaders will inspire other leaders and community members to collaborate to create a more equitable city and region. The book can be downloaded here:  https://kendedafund.org/reports/pathmakers )

When a group of dedicated leaders work together to imagine a shared vision for an equitable Atlanta, we believe, like Kendeda, that a groundswell will form that leads to the ‘good trouble’ necessary to realize a better Atlanta. That’s why we applaud Kendeda’s investment in existing and emerging social justice leaders as they continue to grow their influence and organizations to steward positive change.

We are grateful for Kendeda Fund’s unwavering commitment to  paving the way to make “equity” a philanthropic conversation in Atlanta. Through its Atlanta Equity portfolio, The Fund equipped leaders and organizations with new tools to fight for justice. That’s the sort of “dismantling of structures” that’s essential to affect the long-term social change and racial justice we dream of and strive for.