Impact Division
The Partnership for Southern Equity's Impact division is comprised of the Data, Research, Innovation and Policy (DRIP) Team, PSE's social enterprise consultancy work through Just Solutions, and oversees volunteer support and leadership academies across the organization.
Meet the Team
Data, Research, Innovation and Policy
The Data, Research, Innovation and Policy(DRIP) team supports the entire PSE organization and works cross-functionally with all the issue area portfolios to leverage data, research, policy, and evaluation efforts that contribute towards racial equity and systems transformation.
In alignment with PSE’s mission and values, we recognize that racial equity is a “way,” not a “what.” The team is committed to applying equitable methodology to every project. This means that the whole data process clearly defines the outcomes, with a clear commitment to equity throughout. We lead with research and policy efforts focused on Black, Brown and historically disadvantaged communities of color. We work to center racial equity, put data in the hands of people, and rely on Community-Based Participatory Research to define our project priorities. We approach data collection as participatory and maintain full transparency with the public.
Our Data, Research, Innovation and Policy team is partnered alongside the Justice40 Accelerator project to create a StoryMap that helps shed light on some of those details -contextualizing the circumstances within a long history of federal climate and economic decisions, highlighting some existing barriers that exist for frontline organizations in securing funding, tracking the actions taken thus far, and ultimately crafting a story that helps us “leverage this pivotal moment to radically reimagine the government resource delivery system as a restorative and reparative framework to better support Black and historically disinvested communities of color.”
Just Solutions is the consulting arm of the Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE). We understand that equity is not a “check the box” moment, but one that involves a level of intentionality that requires time, commitment and patience, allowing leaders and the people they serve to effectively identify, name, disrupt and dismantle the endemic racism that exists inside and outside institutions. A quick, unintentional approach to this work will solve nothing and is likely to cause harm. PSE knows that this "change can only happen at the speed of trust" and by people who are not looking just at a financial bottom line, but are, rather, mission-driven. This is what makes Just Solutions different.
Uniquely Positioned - Our Results
As an Atlanta-based organization delivering regional impact, Just Solutions is uniquely positioned to address the American South’s equity issues. We envision a South where racial equity is the approach, rather than a concession, in our social, political, and economic development. Our work in more than 100 communities in metropolitan Atlanta, rural and coastal Georgia, and across the Southeast region has helped transform the lives of more 30,000 people through advocacy, training, and direct service.
Nathaniel Q. Smith, Jr.,