Resources and Relationships
We support a growing movement of people reimagining research as a tool for healing, liberation, and transformation
Through our annual Community Research for Liberation National Convening and our monthly webinar series, we are challenging ourselves and colleagues across the nation to shift our thinking, expand our vision of what research can be, and boldly redefine what it means to invest in and resource research led by Black women, girls, and femmes.
National Convening
Across the nation, community members use research to tell their stories and ignite change. But community research efforts are often overshadowed or displaced by institutional research processes that are frequently inaccessible, extractive, or disconnected from the people most impacted by injustice. An annual event hosted by Research in Action (RIA) and the Equity in Action Way (EAW) Foundation, the Community Research for Liberation National Convening is a space for community members, educators and academics, non-profit staff and organizers, front-line public service workers and philanthropic leaders of ALL racial backgrounds to gain tools and training in liberatory research design, healing-centered engagement, and accountable partnerships across community and institutional settings.
Webinars
A monthly offering from Research in Action and the Equity in Action Way Foundation, the Community Research for Liberation webinar series highlights examples of community-centered research that disrupts top down approaches and supports a growing movement of people across the country who are reimagining research as a tool to support healing, liberation, and transformation.
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Centering community in research requires intentional frameworks that disrupt top-down approaches. What steps can your organization or institution take to ensure your research and evaluation work is led by community expertise—and results in actionable outcomes for racial justice? In our September webinar, we explored RIA’s Equity in Action model and the five liberatory research principles of Social Insights Research, which strategically embed those most impacted as research project leaders and architects. In this conversation, Dr. Brittany Lewis, founder and CEO of Research in Action — as well as author of the new book “Building a New Table: A Community-Centered Handbook for Transformative Social Change” — and Dr. Zuri Tau, founder and CEO of Social Insights Research, shared real-world examples and tangible processes and practices you can apply to your work no matter your sector or issue to create more authentic engagement and more effective outcomes.
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What becomes possible when philanthropy takes responsible risks and provides sustained support for community-centered work addressing systemic injustice? In our October 2026 webinar, the Bush Foundation joined the Equity in Action Way Foundation and Research in Action for a conversation exploring what it takes to fund and sustain innovative systems-change work. Using RIA’s Justice in Institutions for Black Women, Girls & Femmes Special Initiative and its partnership with the Bush Foundation as a real-world example, the conversation highlighted how sustained investment has made it possible to build statewide research and evaluation infrastructure, strengthen relationships and collective power among Black women and femme leaders and community partners, and co-create new approaches to institutional change. RIA and the Bush Foundation also discussed what funders and organizations need from one another to advance bold, evolving visions for change, particularly at a time when funding for race-, gender-, and class-conscious work is increasingly uncertain.
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Community-centered research with people with lived experience requires ensuring we embody ethical and trauma-informed approaches to engaging those with lived experience. Join Dr. Madasen Briggs (Research in Action) and Savy Elahian (Consultant and PhD Student at Ohio State University) for a webinar about how we adapt, pivot and respond to emergent learnings from impacted community members throughout the research process. Dr. Briggs will present about conducting a landscape assessment with Black and Indigenous community members on use and access barriers to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder, with an emphasis on integrating flexible and responsive data collection strategies to accommodate community members needs. Savvy will share about their ongoing work with LGBTQ survivors of intimate partner violence, with a focus on Black and ethnically diverse survivors. A monthly offering from the Equity in Action Way Foundation (EAW) & Research in Action (RIA), the Community Research for Liberation webinar series highlights examples of community-centered research that disrupts top down approaches and supports a growing movement of people across the country who are reimagining research as a tool to support healing, liberation, and transformation.