About BRJE

Brookline for Racial Justice & Equity (BRJE) is on a mission to eliminate racism and all its vestiges in our lifetime.

About BRJE

Brookline for Racial Justice & Equity (BRJE) is on a mission to eliminate racism and all its vestiges in our lifetime.

Our Story

We envision an accessible and inclusive Brookline where everyone can live, learn, work, visit, build power, and thrive free of racism and oppression.

We’ll get there by building an informed, motivated, and organized constituency for racial justice while leveraging our collective power to reshape the systems around us.

The Challenge

Racism doesn’t just impact interpersonal relationships. Systemic and institutional racism has a detrimental impact on entire communities — negatively impacting health, economic mobility, education, and more. This impact is evident across our community today:

The median income for Black households in Brookline is $47,000 less than white households.
Unemployment rates for Latiné residents are nearly double those for white residents.
Asian residents are 18% of Brookline’s population, but hold less than 5% of seats on Brookline’s boards and committees.

Barriers like these create lifelong and intergenerational disparities that impair the ability of people of color (POC) to attain stability, access new opportunities, and create thriving communities. Further, systemic racism impacts everyone in this community, whether they identify as POC or not. For example, Brookline’s housing affordability crisis is rooted in restrictive practices like redlining — a policy that led to disinvestment in Black and immigrant communities and reinforced racial segregation.

Addressing these issues and eliminating racism will require bold solutions that build community, advance racially just policies, expand access and opportunities, and provide pathways for every community member to participate in the civic and social fabric of Brookline.

Our Approach

BRJE is a direct response to the urgent need to eliminate the barriers that are preventing everyone in the Brookline community from reaching their full potential. We have nearly 10 years of experience working with and alongside Brookline community organizations and institutions.

Now, as a 501(c)3 nonprofit, BRJE is preparing to launch a new strategy that aims to end racism in Brookline in our lifetime while also creating a playbook and best practices that communities across the country can follow through a powerful three-pronged approach:

01

Increase Access

Increase Access to essential resources like food, housing, childcare, early education, and more by reducing costs and eliminating restrictive barriers.

02

Ensure Inclusion

Ensure Inclusion in local decision- and policy-making by removing roadblocks to civic participation and enforcing civil rights protections.

03

Advance Opportunity

Advance Opportunity so that the environmental, health, and educational benefits of Brookline are maximized for POC while creating new pathways to economic mobility.

Drawing on our roots as a community-led coalition, our work is driven by coalition-building events, community education, original research, policy development, and outcomes measurement that leverages the core strengths of Brookline to build an engine for change.

Our Team

Our team is led by Dr. Raul Fernandez, who serves as our Founding Executive Director and has deep experience working for racial justice as an academic, elected, and community leader.

Dr. Raul Fernandez (he/him)

Executive Director

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Jasmine Francoeur (she/her)

Program Coordinator

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Board of Directors

Our board is composed predominantly of people of color working alongside dedicated white allies – all committed to ensuring that our actions result in measurable progress that can be felt by those who need it most.