Episode 34: ThirdSpace Action Lab Episode 3: Antiracist Community Development

This is the third episode in the podcast series Moving Toward Healing focused on the incredible work of ThirdSpace Action Lab, a racial equity consulting firm based in Cleveland. The series features six episodes exploring the philosophy, strategies, and achievements of this extremely unique and innovative changemaking powerhouse. ThirdSpace Action Lab was launched five years ago and is based in the historically Black neighborhood of Glenville where they also have a café and bookstore. They describe their purpose as follows: “The future of this country’s neighborhoods depends on our collective efforts to transcend the limitations of the popular imagination.” They like to say, imagine if Parliament Funkadelic and McKinsey Consulting had a love child – that is ThirdSpace Action Lab – and they are poised to turn their call for radical imagination into reality. 

In this episode we focus on the ThirdSpace approach to antiracist community development.  Antiracism was at the core of the founding of ThirdSpace and their first major programming was a series of racial equity and inclusion workshops offered to the community development and nonprofit sector in Cleveland. With a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the ThirdSpace team conducted research and produced a report laying out principles and imperatives of antiracist community development. For this episode, we’re joined by the three members of the ThirdSpace team who lead the Peoples Practice, the hub for the organization’s focus on antiracist community development.

Monica Copeland is the Project Director of The People’s Practice at ThirdSpace Action Lab. Prior to working at ThirdSpace, Monica was the MDI Network Director at Inclusiv where she helped provide technical assistance and resources to help strengthen community development credit unions led by communities of color. She has also worked with several other financial empowerment and asset building organizations. She earned a dual B.A. in Sociology and African & African American Studies from Duke University and an M.S. in Social Work from Columbia University.

Curtis Minter, Jr. is the Senior Fellow of Community of Practice + Convenings at ThirdSpace Action Lab. He previously launched Talented Xth Consulting and served as Operations Director of The Well CDC in Akron, OH. He has more than a decade of experience working in the nonprofit sector and supporting coalition building.

Karis Tzeng is the Senior Fellow for Content + Research at ThirdSpace Action Lab. She has worked in community development for 10 years, including most recently as Vice President of Planning for MidTown Cleveland, where she led neighborhood planning and place building efforts in the MidTown and AsiaTown neighborhoods. She has a Bachelor of Arts in urban studies from the University of Pennsylvania and Masters of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Michigan.

ThirdSpace Action Lab

The People’s Practice

Toward a New Paradigm in Antiracism Community Development: High-Level Research Findings

The National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities