Racial Justice in Europe Dialogues
“Framing the continent as a space free of ‘race’ (and by implication, racism), is not only central to the way Europeans perceive themselves but has also gained near-global acceptance.” (Fatima El-Tayeb, European Others: queering ethnicity in post national Europe)
During the course of 2021, Ariadne Network, EDGE Funders Alliance and Gender Funders Co-Lab started an in-depth conversation to understand how it could be possible to design a process for European members that would allow them to explore and create the conditions to build the racial justice philanthropic field in Europe. This conversation led to the design of the Racial Justice Dialogues, a program running for 9 months virtually, facilitated by Renata Cuk and Guppi Bola. The program aspires to provide to participants a deeper understanding of the racial justice context in Europe, providing them the tool to truly work with a racial justice lens and move more money towards the field.
Many of the participants have already been deeply engaged in racial justice work through discussions, training and personal or organizational journeys, and their professional, personal and academic experiences will provide precious additional content to the program, integrated with the expertise of movement organizers.
Everyone taking part in the program will be part of a transformative work, focused on understanding what it takes to dismantle racism that is rooted in European culture, politics and economics and the specific role of philanthropy in this process. Our goal and objectives for these dialogues is to see substantive investment in place to address systemic racism across Europe.
We hope these dialogues can be a small, but significant step for European philanthropy in supporting emerging strategies and existing solutions identified. Participants of the program are committed to building a community of European funders and community organisers that will support a long-term approach to equity and justice centered around anti-racist philanthropy.
Registrations for this round of the program are now closed. However, we are looking forward to sharing the learnings and outputs with the community at large once the program is concluded.
For further information or to answer any questions, please email racialjustice@edgefunders.org.
About the facilitators:
Guppi Bola (she/her) is a senior consultant strategist with over fifteen years experience in economics, health and climate issues. Her academic background is in public health, which she uses to focus her strategic thinking on the root causes of social inequality and ill health. She is the author of Reimaging Public Health, a follow up to her stint as Interim Director of Medact. She is currently Chair of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and one part of double trouble duo Decolonising Economics – bringing a deeper analysis of Britain’s colonial history to conversationsaround structural racism and designing economic policies that embody racial justice principles. You can find out more about her at www.guppibola.com.
Renata Cuk is a passionate social justice advocate, a feminist, systems thinker and storyteller, with over 13 years of experience in the human rights field. As an activist in Croatia she was part of the feminist movement and a member of the Women’s Court for the former Yugoslavia. Renata has spent the last 11 years with the Open Society Foundations, working for the European office on supporting social justice movements in Europe, leading the fellowship program, and developing a new portfolio of work on economic justice with a focus on the right to housing and decent work. Renata is a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity and an Advisory Board member ofthe Othering and Belonging Institute (Democracy and Belonging Forum). Renata is committed to tackling inequalities with a specific focus on intersectional gender justice and racial justice, while she continues to explore different ways to support social movements and engage in narrative change work. She is an improviser, a storyteller, and a facilitator.