All over the country, communities are shifting decision-making power to neighborhood residents, students and teachers, workers and tenants, and introducing real accountability to make sure that governing institutions uphold everyone’s fundamental human rights. Partners for Dignity & Rights and Race Forward are excited to announce the release of our new report, Co-Governing Toward Multiracial Democracy, featuring powerful models of collaborative governance led by communities of color across the country.

Co-governance, or collaborative governance, is a collection of participatory models and practices in which government and communities work together through formal and informal structures to make collective policy decisions, co-create programs to meet community needs, and ensure those policies and programs are implemented effectively.

The report illustrates that it is possible to build power and give community members a real say over the decisions in their lives when organizations are able to engage with government entities to change policy, establish a culture of justice, and center community participation.