Racial Healing Initiative
FAQ
When did the pilot start?
The first pilots of this program began in April 2022. An expanded piloting phase began in June 2022.
How many centers participated in the pilot?
Five centers participated in the initial pilot. The Racial Healing Initiative (RHI) team is currently working with six more retreat centers in the second phase of the initiative.
How can my retreat center be involved?
See our upcoming schedule of events for regular community offerings on racial healing.
We also offer facilitated affinity groups for BIPoC people in retreat spaces, and for a cohort of local facilitators who are working with the RHI team at retreat centers across the country.
I want to host a Racial Healing retreat, so what do I do?
The RHI team works directly with individual retreat center organizations to develop and facilitate an onsite retreat as part of a larger arc of racial healing programming. We identified initial participating centers by conducting a community needs assessment in January 2022, where RCC community members shared their center’s experience and interest with us. See the results here. We continue to seek to identify centers from diverse geographies, backgrounds and experiences to participate in the pilot phases. Contact RHI Program Director Brenda Salgado to learn how your center might participate.
Who will design and lead the sessions?
In January 2022, the RHI team hired five program design team members to develop the curriculum and a train-the-trainers model for program implementation. The RHI team provides training and support for local facilitators to enable sustainable ongoing program delivery and facilitation.
What has the team learned so far in the pilot of this program?
Is this program designed specifically for retreat centers? Who can participate?
RHI supports retreat leaders in engaging transformative racial equity work, for themselves, their centers, and their local communities. This initiative may also deliver related programming within similar contemplative contexts that share the core values of the Retreat Center Collaboration. The program is designed to grow into the related communities around retreat centers as well.
Overall, the RHI aims to create opportunities for personal and collective transformation, in order to spark and drive structural change. Retreat centers bring an existing institutional commitment to reflection, attention to the inner life, and care for others. By directing this commitment toward racial healing, this initiative advances practices of communication, engagement, representative leadership, and retreat approaches that explicitly address inequity and consciously meet the needs of BIPoC people. Through cross-pollination, the network will widely share ways of working that speak to the heart of racial healing and foster thriving communities. This will enable the work’s impact to ripple beyond the place-based centers.
Can I help lead this program?
If your retreat center is selected to participate, there may be an opportunity for you to help lead program events. If you have experience in facilitating racial justice and equity programming at retreat centers or related organizations, we would love to talk with you. Please contact RHI Program Director Brenda Salgado.
What research, wisdom, and theories are guiding this program?
Our team has researched curriculum options to identify existing models and hybrids of current models that foster inner work for racial healing through retreats and small group experiences. For example, the Kellogg Foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Guidebook, the Just Faith Ministries Racial Justice program, the Mindful of Race Institute curriculum by Ruth King, and Racial Healing Circles using the Circles of Trust or Healing Circles Global models could be implemented across the network, adapting the model to meet the needs of local contexts and to fit timeframes for the retreats and small group engagements.
Potential curriculum themes and topics include: Systems Thinking for Racial Equity, Organizational Analysis and Assessment for Racial Equity, Reflective Inner Work for Racial Healing, Somatic and Mindfulness Practices, and more. The curriculum planning will continue to identify proven curriculum materials that will help participants engage in reflection, healing, and transformative learning.
How large was the initial grant?
The initial grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation will support the first year at $500K, the second year at $300K, and the third year at $200K. There is opportunity for additional funders to participate. If you wish to discuss this further, please contact RHI Program Director Brenda Salgado.
My center is located in Canada. Is this an American program?
At this time we're focusing on the U.S. for this project.
The RCC community includes several centers in Canada; however, the funding for this initiative is currently focused on sites in the U.S. The resulting insights and curricula coming out of the initiative will be shared across the RCC community. We continue to seek to identify funding to expand this work to retreat centers in Canada. We welcome collaborative funding proposal ideas to support this work at Canadian centers. Please email them to RHI Program Director Brenda Salgado.
I have helpful resources - how can I share them?
The RHI team is collecting resources and would greatly appreciate your center’s input. Thank you so much in advance. Please please contact RHI Program Director Brenda Salgado.
