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Racial equity creates the necessary conditions for people of all races and ethnicities to live in a just society. In a racially equitable world, a child’s racial identity would not determine their experiences, treatment by people in their daily lives, their family’s opportunities or life outcomes.Racial equity is an aspirational pursuit – one that threads through everything we do and all our investments, and can only be achieved through robust community power and engagement.
Children need equitable communities to learn and grow. They need the adults who shape their life experiences to have strong, effective relationships that lead to innovative approaches in community-building. Racial healing creates the conditions and human relationships needed to achieve racial equity.
Racial healing is both communal and personal. Nearly everyone, regardless of skin color, ethnic background, economic standing or language, can recall a personal story involving race or racism. Racism affects individuals in diverse ways, and it is important that everyone can heal within the context of their personal and racialized experiences. Racial healing can make us stronger individually while strengthening our relationships with the people around us. It is an approach where stories from different backgrounds converge and strangers become friends.
Racial healing is a process that restores individuals and communities to wholeness, repairs the damage caused by racism and transforms societal structures into ones that affirm the inherent value of all people.
This healing process includes self-care, personal reflection and community support, emphasizing the importance of embracing one’s cultural identity and building solidarity both within and across communities. It’s a path of self-discovery and moral clarity. Through racial healing, individuals understand themselves better and recognize their connections to others more deeply. On a collective level, it creates space for community power-building and engagement to foster new visions and collaborate in achieving shared goals. Racial healing repairs us – mind, heart, conscience and connection – so we can pave the path to a bright future for generations to come.
Learn more about one community’s work to achieve racial equity in a region that has long experienced deep economic inequality and racial segregation.
Drawing on our founder’s vision of promoting the health, happiness and well- being of children, we recognize that racism is a primary obstacle to children and families realizing their full potential.
Our grantees demonstrate a commitment to advancing racial equity every day. They do this by centering the voices of people in their communities, engaging in or leading collective action and maximizing their communities’ inherent gifts to identify solutions to the challenges they face.
We collaborate on resources, tools and experiences that help grantees and community partners in the field embed racial equity, racial healing and community engagement principles and practices into their work and their way of being. This approach includes:
RACIAL EQUITY In the coming weeks, members of WKKF’s executive team will speak at The Atlantic Festival and the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). At The Atlantic Festival, Dr. Alandra Washington will address the role of racial healing in equitable artificial…
Children and pregnant individuals with lawful permanent resident immigration status will no longer have to wait five years to be eligible for Medicaid in Michigan. The expansion of Medicaid access is a victory for immigrant rights advocates, who have been…
In the upcoming Atlantic Festival’s two-day event, WKKF leaders will be bringing children and our collective futures to the conversations. On day one, WKKF’s Dr. Carla Thompson Payton, chief of strategy and impact will be joining The AtlanticLIVE’s Executive Vice…
The National Day of Racial Healing reminds us that we have the collective power to chart a brighter, more just and healthier future for our children and our nation. Every year, on the Tuesday after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, hundreds of organizations bring their communities together to connect, build relationships and bridge divides. From small group coffee chats to daylong dialogues to community history tours, every observance reflects the uniqueness of each community.
The time to act is now. Healing takes more than a day. Visit National Day of Racial Healing for year-round inspiration.
Are you a community organizer, business executive, educator or the leader of anonprofit organization? If so, the initiatives below offer lessons and opportunitiesfrom the people and organizations who are advancing racial equity across avariety of sectors.
Clinton School of Public Service/Center on Community Philanthropy Racial Healing Certification Program
Expanding Equity
Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT).
Racial Equity 2030
American Association of Colleges and Universities TRHT Campus Centers.
Solidarity Council on Racial Equity.