Home / The Groundwater Approach
Fish. Lake. Groundwater.
A metaphor that reframes everything — and the foundation of all of REI's work.
Systems can't help people thrive when they're built with inequities at their core. The Groundwater Approach uses data to demonstrate a single, uncomfortable truth: racial inequity looks the same across systems — health, education, justice, housing — even though the people in each system are different.
If the disparity is the same everywhere, the cause can't be the individuals. It has to be the water they all share.
The Fish
When one fish is sick, we treat the fish. Individual-level analysis: bias, intent, the “bad actor.”
The Lake
When half the fish in a lake are sick, the problem isn’t the fish — it’s the water. Look at the whole system.
The Groundwater
When fish in every lake are sick, the contaminant is in the groundwater feeding them all. Racism is structural.
The Intervention
You don’t blame the fish — you clean the water. We help institutions address the systemic source.
From individual blame to systemic change
Most diversity work treats the fish — fixing individual attitudes one person at a time. Groundwater thinking moves the focus to the structures and history producing inequity, so interventions actually change outcomes.
"Our approach has a movement orientation, always focused on institutional change with equitable and just outcomes for everyone."