Groups affiliated with RCNO have gained national recognition for their holistic and community-centered approaches to addressing criminal justice issues, banking reinvestment, environmental justice and economic development.

Our work has also been recognized by a number of leading academic institutions: Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Southern California, to name a few. Leading seminaries and theologians have used RCNO's methodologies to educate aspiring clergy and lay leaders. Fuller Theological Seminary, Andover-Newton Theological Seminary, and Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary are among the many schools of theology that have drawn on the work of RCNO-affiliated organizations to inform their curricula.

Because of RCNO's focused outreach, thousands of people of faith have built the capacity to catalyze change in disinvested African American communities throughout the nation. RCNO's impact has been particularly notable in low-income black communities throughout California. Our leadership has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to empower, protect and serve the needs of black Californians, while providing integrity-based leadership to other ethnic groups, based on mutual goals and values.

Important California policy victories include:

(1) Culturally competent education programs initiated in three Los Angeles Unified School District schools to better serve African American students (2005)

(2) The reduction of disciplinary procedures and special education referrals in LAUSD (2005)

(3) The awarding of $4.5 million in state funding to build a state-of-the-art youth soccer stadium on a 3.5-acre site that was a brownfield (2003)

(4) The redirection of $70 million from a failed federal community development bank to an employment development center for ex-offenders in Los Angeles County (2003)

(5) The passage of California State Assembly Bill 743, which provides literacy training and high school equivalency degrees to ex-offenders as a diversion from prison (1998)

(6) The MCI/Verizon Initiative, which reduced the exorbitant rates charged for collect calls made by inmates in California's prisons, and redirects a portion of phone company profits into education and employment services for ex-offenders and their families (2002)

(7) The passage of California State Assembly Bill 1901, which expands measurements of success for education, rehabilitation and job placement services for ex-offenders and their families (2002)