Our Focus

Taking a stand against systemic racism.

Launched in October 2020, the CEO Action for Racial Equity (CEOARE) Fellowship brings together top talent and resources to advance public policies and corporate engagement strategies that will address systemic racism and social injustice while improving societal well-being. The Fellowship mobilizes the larger collective business community – across all industries and regions – to collectively put values into action, activate networks, and collaborate through a business lens.

The CEOARE agenda revolves around four platforms that are vital to advancing equity and well-being for our country’s 47+ million Black Americans: Economic Empowerment, Education and Opportunity, Healthy Communities, and Public Safety.

With these platforms as the foundation of our policy advocacy and corporate engagement, CEOARE unites 100+ signatory companies to drive impact across six priority issues that disproportionately and systemically impact the Black community and three corporate engagement strategies that will help mobilize the business community to continue to help drive change.

Our Issue Agenda

Economic Empowerment

We are working to foster economic equity for Black Americans by delivering practical solutions to three common societal roadblocks to economic equity and financial health. Our goal is to develop and promote sustainable economic policies and catalyze corporate engagement strategies that empower Black Americans with equitable opportunities to amass, maintain, and pass on wealth.

Education and Opportunity

Our CEOARE Education and Opportunity Platform focuses on three foundational issues – early childhood education and care, closing the digital divide, and support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). We are working to enable Black children to build momentum in their education from the very beginning, sustain it throughout K-12, flourish once they’re in college, and create successful, satisfying lives and careers.

Healthy Communities

Our CEOARE Healthy Communities Platform is committed to addressing quality of life in the Black population. With widening racial disparities in the quality of life and health for Black Americans, addressing the non-medical factors that influence health outcomes – known as social determinants of health (SDOH) – has become more urgent. To advance our healthy communities platform, CEOARE has worked to address racism as a public health crisis and expand access to telehealth. Our efforts continue with a special focus on food equity in communities that traditionally have been neglected and under-resourced.

Public Safety

Our CEOARE Public Safety Platform focuses on advancing justice system and law enforcement policies designed to protect and treat Black Americans and all individuals justly without bias or prejudice. Public safety is grounded in the creation of fair and just laws that are applied equitably and promote trusting relationships with law enforcement. We work with numerous diverse and experienced organizations and galvanize corporate engagement to champion policy changes that bring fairness, trust, and accountability to our justice system.

Place-Based Approach

Our place-based approach acknowledges the strengths, assets and leadership in communities, with a focus on driving policy change locally. After making significant progress in Oakland, California, we are continuing our work in:

> Baltimore, Maryland
> Dallas, Texas
> Birmingham, Alabama
> Detroit, Michigan

Click here to learn more about our approach in targeted cities and our progress to date.