We must do more.

Higher Expectations for Racine County believes that every person in Racine County and across the country should have equal opportunities to succeed in school, and in life, regardless of their race.

We know that because of inequities based on race, opportunities to succeed are often unreachable for black residents in our community. Recent events, particularly the killings of black men and women including Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, again bring to light the importance of transforming unjust systems in our society.

The Higher Expectations team mourns the loss of these and countless other precious lives that have been taken too soon as we’ve collectively failed to address racism in our systems and structures.

For the past six years that Higher Expectations has existed as an organization, we have: disaggregated local outcomes data by race, ethnicity, and income, encouraged our partners to trust data that exposes systemic racism in our community, partnered with national organizations to better inform our institutional partners and community about our Country’s history of racism and systemic challenges, and worked with our partners to prioritize and address racial disparities in educational and employment strategies. We acknowledge that we must do more. 

As an organization committed to eliminating disparities and creating equitable opportunities for all members of our community, we understand that in order to create true change in our system we must listen to and be led by those most impacted by our unjust structures. Over the next several months, we will work with our partners and community members to create a plan for how our work will change, so that we do better as a community to dismantle racism in our systems and rebuild in a way that truly serves all of us. 

-The Higher Expectations Team

If you are interested in learning more about and/or co-creating our plan, please fill out the form below: