While the current supply of evidence-based programs and policies that provide meaningful solutions for Black and Brown communities is thin, we can expand and optimize our use of existing evidence to guide policies and investments toward better outcomes.

We know that stronger safety net programs — like childcare subsidies, supplemental nutrition assistance, health care benefits, paid family leave, and cash assistance, among others — play a key role in keeping low-income workers and their children from poverty by helping them weather economic shocks (like a job loss) and invest in skill-building. We know that there are some program models — in prenatal and infancy home visiting, K-12 education, pregnancy prevention, community college, workforce training, and employment — that have demonstrated positive outcomes for Black people and for other groups of color. For example, the transitional job and employment support model implemented by the Center for Employment Opportunities has been proven to decrease recidivism in participants for at least three years. We also know that many education and social programs fail to produce long-term outcomes for the most marginalized because they are not equipped or empowered to provide comprehensive supports to replicate a safety net (for example, providing stipends to attend skills training that reduce a participant’s need to work).

Despite the evidence, our policies and spending have not prioritized equitable outcomes for Black people, people of color, and people living in poverty. Over the last three decades, state and local spending on prisons and jails has risen more than three times faster than spending on schools.

Lack of rigorous evidence should not slow the pace of urgent systemic reforms in policing and criminal justice, but building evidence of these reforms will be necessary to measure progress toward reducing racial disparities and to ensure outcomes for Black and Brown communities in the long run.

There is limited empirical evidence that community policing initiatives reduce crimes on their own, or that instituting procedural accountability mechanisms (like use of body cameras or implicit-bias training) changes policing outcomes for Black and Brown people. In this context, some are calling for immediate harm reduction through a comprehensive set of policies that restrict police use of force, while others are calling for large-scale divestments in the police.

To increase the supply of solutions that reduce racial disparities and produce outcomes for Black communities and for people of color, we have to change the way we fund, build, and share evidence. Evidence building should center the voices of the people and communities most directly impacted by the problems we seek to solve.

Evidence doesn’t just come from a formal impact evaluation or statistical analyses of quantitative data. Evidence is not just about answering yes/no questions (like does this work or not), but also about assessing needs and understanding what works for whom and why. Evidence is not about compliance, but about shared accountability, learning, and continuous improvement. What counts as evidence? Evidence is a combination of quantitative and qualitative data that can answer questions and drive decisions of different magnitude.

Read the full article about using data and evidence to end structural racism by Farhana Hossain at Project Evident.