Advancing Gender and Racial Justice Through Research: Powering Change with Communities
Data is not neutral—it is a form of power.
It determines what gets measured, what gets funded, and whose experiences shape the decisions that impact our communities. Too often, the realities of women, girls, and gender-expansive people—especially those most impacted by systemic inequities—are missing from the data that drives policy, investment, and opportunity.
At the Women’s Fund SouthCoast, we are changing that.
We use research as a tool for power, accountability, and action—centering community voice not as an afterthought, but as essential infrastructure. Through participatory, community-driven research, we elevate lived experience, challenge incomplete narratives, and generate the insights needed to drive equitable investment and systems change.
Unlike traditional research models that extract data from communities, our approach builds power with communities—ensuring that those most impacted shape the questions, interpret the findings, and drive the solutions.
This work is not only about understanding inequities. It is about shifting who is seen, who is heard, and how resources are distributed.
SouthCoast Empowered by Equity Data (SEED) Initiative
In 2024, the Women’s Fund SouthCoast (WFSC), in partnership with UMass Boston’s Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy (CWPPP), launched the SouthCoast Empowered by Equity Data (SEED) Initiative—a multi-phase effort to strengthen data-informed decision-making across the SouthCoast region.
SEED is designed to serve as the region’s equity-centered data infrastructure—shaping how funding, policy, and institutional decisions are made across the SouthCoast.
SEED brings together regional expertise, mixed-methods research, and a shared commitment to equity to address the longstanding lack of accessible, community-centered data. By integrating quantitative data with lived experience, SEED fills critical gaps in how communities are understood—and how decisions are made.
The initiative centers the voices, experiences, and needs of women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals while also identifying community strengths and gaps in services and resources. The data generated through SEED is designed to inform policy, guide strategic investment, and improve outcomes across the region—ensuring that the realities of those most impacted are not only documented, but acted on.
How SEED Drives Change
- Generate actionable, decision-ready data to inform funding, policy, and practice across sectors throughout the SouthCoast
- Equip public, nonprofit, and philanthropic leaders with the insights needed to allocate resources more effectively and equitably
- Apply an anti-bias, anti-racist, and intersectional equity lens, guided by those most impacted and grounded in an awareness of past harms in research
- Produce inclusive, disaggregated data that reflects the full diversity of the region across gender, race, ethnicity, and other key demographics
- Build a replicable model for community-centered data collection, interpretation, and dissemination that can inform efforts across Massachusetts and beyond
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This is more than a research initiative—it is infrastructure for long-term, equitable systems change across the SouthCoast and beyond.
SEED Participatory Research Advisories
SEED is guided by community voices at every stage. We partner with advisory groups that reflect the experiences, cultures, and strengths of the SouthCoast region, ensuring that our research is accountable to the communities it serves.
Our Participatory Research Advisory Groups include:
- Research Advisory
- Organizational Leadership Advisory
- Community Advisories, including:
- Youth Advisory
- Adult Advisory
- Older Adult Advisory
Together, these groups ensure that SEED’s work remains inclusive, community-driven, and grounded in lived experience.
SouthCoast Voices
SouthCoast Voices community engagement sessions are the first step in a multi-year effort to build a strong, community-informed research foundation for the SouthCoast region. By listening to community voices early and often, we are laying the groundwork for insights that reflect lived experience and support meaningful, long-term change.
Six SouthCoast Voices sessions will be held throughout 2026, with a focus on understanding what it takes to live a stable life across the region’s 5 Gateway Cities (Attleboro, Brockton, Fall River, New Bedford, Taunton). For more information about the upcoming session, please visit our events page for information about upcoming sessions
Our Foundation: The Economic Blueprint for Women
In 2017, the Women’s Fund SouthCoast launched The Economic Blueprint for Women—a bold, community-informed framework identifying the systemic barriers facing women and girls across our region. This work marked the beginning of our long-term commitment to research as a tool for equity and systems change.
The Blueprint’s six interconnected focus areas are:
Early Education and Childcare
1 of 6Employment and Benefits
2 of 6Education and Training
3 of 6Health, Safety, and Wellbeing
4 of 6Public Safety Nets and Wraparound Services
5 of 6Civic and Political Leadership
6 of 6
Be Part of the Work
The data that shapes our region should reflect the people who live here.
SEED is building the relationships, knowledge, and infrastructure needed to ensure that community voice drives decisions—not the other way around. This is how more equitable systems are built—and sustained—and how resources are more effectively and equitably directed across our region.
- Invest in community-driven research
- Partner with us to advance equitable solutions
- Join a SouthCoast Voices session
