Executive Summary: TRHT Kalamazoo Impact Report

TRUTH, RACIAL HEALING & TRANSFORMATION KALAMAZOO

IMPACT REPORT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2017-2020 Transforming Kalamazoo by centering racial healing, reshaping power and building community

402 E. Michigan Ave Kalamazoo, MI 49008

trhtkzoo.org trht@kalfound.org

PAGE 1

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This impact report was made possible by the dedicated work of the design team leads and members and their willingness to collect data and share their time and insights with the evaluation team and TRHT and KZCF staff. The evaluation team, along with the TRHT leadership, would like to acknowledge and give thanks to Meg Blinkiewicz, the Evaluation Team lead from 2016-June 2020. Meg’s expertise and extensive work on the project built not only the instruments and data collection practices for the TRHT Kalamazoo, but was instrumental in the development of a positive evaluation culture that has made this work possible.

The TRHT Evaluation Team Fernando Ospina, Lenore Yaeger and Viola Sawyer The evaluation work is currently being facilitated by TRHT Partner Eliminating Racism and Creating/Celebrating Equity (ERACCE).

PAGE 2

LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR To the Kalamazoo Community, TRHT family and supporters, It has been an amazing journey growing the Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) work here in my hometown. When the Kalamazoo Community Foundation leadership and some key community partners first learned about the opportunity to explore a new initiative for racial healing through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, we couldn’t have imagined how much the work would resonate across the community. The work has grown year after year, simply responding to the desire of various community partners to participate in something that felt truly transformative and inspiring.

As a community, we have learned the importance of centering healing in all our work — embodying healing principles expanded into our daily lives, our professional work, and our advocacy. This work transforms everyone it touches. It was so important from the early stage to find ways to engage people from many different vantage points in the community, to ask questions and discuss topics that felt off-limits and to let the strategies emerge from the collective wisdom that is shared. We are moving beyond having good intentions, to being intentional not just about what we do as a community, but also how we do it.

This report attempts to capture what has grown within the TRHT network at this critical point in time — not only the core programs we have created together, but also the work being led by various partners that was catalyzed through our collective exploration of what transformation means. The work is an unfolding, lifetime work. As TRHT Kalamazoo becomes more established and the concepts of healing and transformation become more embedded across the community, it is vital to understand how it has emerged and to recognize all of the people and organizations that have been on this journey.

We hope you will share in celebrating the accomplishments of our collective work and be inspired by the lessons learned as we together continue to foster the conditions for deep healing and transformation in our community.

With immense gratitude,

Sholanna Lewis Director, TRHT Kalamazoo

PAGE 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

2

LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

5 6 7 10

TRHT NATIONAL OVERVIEW TRHT KALAMAZOO OVERVIEW TRHT KALAMAZOO IMPACT PROJECT AND DESIGN TEAM EXECUTIVE SUMMARIES

4

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PAGE 4

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PAGE 5

TRHT NATIONAL OVERVIEW National TRHT

TRHT Goal

Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) is a comprehensive, national and community-based process developed by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) and 174 national partners to identify and address the historic and contemporary effects of racism — to help communities heal and produce actionable, sustainable change.

" … to unearth and jettison the deeply embedded belief in a hierarchy of human value that sustains racism, to recognize the history and continued trauma resulting from that belief, and to create policy solutions that will sustain healing and structural change …”

TRHT NATIONAL FRAMEWORK

PAGE 6

TRHT KALAMAZOO OVERVIEW TRHT Kalamazoo Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Kalamazoo, hosted by the Kalamazoo Community Foundation (KZCF), is a community-based movement to bring about transformational and sustainable change to address the historic and contemporary effects of racism.

Kalamazoo is one of the original 14 TRHT locations nationwide, and one of four in Michigan (the others include Flint, Lansing and Battle Creek). TRHT was launched in 2016 by W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Learn more at trhtkzoo.org.

Goals of Initial Grant from W.K. Kellogg Foundation TRHT Kalamazoo was awarded a grant totaling $816,000 that was a part of a $5 million grant to the Council of Michigan Foundations (CMF) to support all four TRHT places in Michigan, including Battle Creek, Flint and Lansing.

CMF continues to convene the four sites for shared learning, networking and strategy. Each place was able to create its own workplan, timeline and budget.

The goals identified by TRHT Kalamazoo were to: Build / strengthen collaborative partnerships and infrastructure locally to carry out the TRHT framework; Map, build capacity and expand existing efforts in narrative change, racial healing, and racial equity in Kalamazoo; Establish growth fund as a sustainable funding source for the TRHT work; and Set a vision, goals (including identify community level outcome), key and strategic direction for the ongoing local work in Phases 1 and 2.

See summary timeline of activities in Appendix A.

PAGE 7

TRHT KALAMAZOO IMPACT

In the past few years, TRHT Kalamazoo has . . .

HOSTED OR PARNTERED ON

APPEARED IN THE NEWS

RECEIVED

50

92

189

EVENTS

TIMES

INDIVIDUAL GIFTS

TRHT Kalamazoo has hosted or partnered on 50 virtual and in-person events over the last three years. TRHT Kalamazoo has also appeared in the news 92 times from 2017 to early 2021, highlighting the impact of new programming and shifting the narrative about how racism and racial equity is reported.

In addition to the initial gift from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, TRHT Kalamazoo has leveraged 5 grants from local and national funders and 189 individual gifts alongside direct investments from the Kalamazoo Community Foundation.

This has allowed operations to grow from a $180,000 annual programmatic budget with one part-time staff to an annual programmatic budget of more than $1M with four full-time staff, to create an endowment to permanently fund racial healing valued at $1,085,611.51 (28 individual gifts) and to raise $1,310,868.50 to fund TRHT operations (161 individual gifts) as of March 2021.

See a full list of TRHT media coverage in Appendix C.

PAGE 8

MAKING AN IMPACT WITH ORGANIZATIONS Partnership has grown since TRHT Kalamazoo started TRHT Kalamazoo has grown from 55 partners engaged in 2018 to 646 in 2021 with a network of 100+ organizations.

646 in 2021

55 in 2018 Organizations are changing because of TRHT 87% of TRHT partners in 2020 reported change in their organization as a result of TRHT participation.

87%

PAGE 9

MAKING AN IMPACT WITH INDIVIDUALS More people are seeing the impact of TRHT Kalamazoo The percentage of people who report that TRHT has had a moderate or great impact on the Kalamazoo community has increased from 26% to 83%.

83% in 2020

26% in 2017 Individuals' behaviors and habits are changing as a result 91% of people report a change in their personal behavior or habits as a result of TRHT participation.

91%

PAGE 10

PROJECT AND DESIGN TEAM EXECUTIVE SUMMARIES Racial Healing

TRutH Talks

The TRHT Kalamazoo Racial Healing Circle Practitioner Cohort, along with staff, has built an organizational structure to deliver in person and virtual healing experiences for the community.

44 individuals across the community have participated in a workshop to learn how to facilitate racial healing circles and become practitioners as part of the cohort or in their own community work. Of these individuals, 6 are lead practitioners who facilitate the workshop locally and help to train others to become practitioners. In the past three years, healing practitioners have hosted 17 healing circles and 12 virtual healing experiences.

In partnership with Rootead Enrichment Center, racial healing work has also led to the creation of the Kalamazoo Black and Brown Therapy Collective, to connect residents to therapists of color.

TRHT has presented 32 TRutH Talks with 100 panelists. These conversations have been creating a space and platform for people to tell their stories, share their vulnerabilities, educate, and prompt advocacy efforts around the community and related to design team efforts.

They also serve as a catalyst for further community action.

PAGE 11

Historical and Cultural Landscape Project

Narrative Change Arts Design Team

The Historical and Cultural Landscape Project seeks to highlight the local history of racism and resistance, with a focus on the social and physical locations of specific importance to communities of color.

The Narrative Change Education and History Design Team, alongside Dr. Michelle S. Johnson, has been gathering feedback on proposed locations and narratives to collectively identify places and locations that exhibit stories that highlight and inspire responses in the direction of justice. The project will help teachers, artists, parents, tour guides and visitors interpret specific narratives in a cultural and historical context.

Additionally, using historical information and community conversations, artists, educators, and trainers will conceptualize, design and create proposals for large scale public art and teaching resources for social change.

Narrative Change Arts has helped plan and implement multiple art exhibits including Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts; the Make Room Exhibit at the Black Arts and Cultural Center; and the Lacrone Park anti-gun violence mural. The design team is also supporting the Historical and Cultural Landscape Project.

These exhibits have broadened perspectives around history, culture and current events by sharing complex and more complete narratives. By centering and celebrating Black artists, artists of color, and artists from other historically excluded groups, Narrative Change Arts seeks to positively impact how community members communicate, perceive and interact with one another.

PAGE 12

Law Design Team

Housing Task Force

The Law Design Team is working to build bridges between community and law enforcement through racial healing and leading projects like the biannual Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC) Police Academy Expanding Our Horizons: A Cultural Awareness Experience and the Advocates & Leaders for Police and Community Trust (ALPACT) Kalamazoo group.

The joint ISAAC & TRHT Housing Task Force produced a report and recommendation that helped drive the unanimous passage of the Housing Equity Ordinance by the Kalamazoo City Commission. The Task Force's leadership and community organizing was instrumental in the passage of the countywide Housing for All millage. This millage will provide housing assistance, renovation of blighted properties, construction of new units of many types and paths to homeownership for county residents historically excluded from those opportunities.

The Law Design Team has hosted 5 Expanding Our Horizons workshops for the KVCC Police Academy with 214 participants, connecting law enforcement and community members through history and racial healing. These events helped participants build relationships and understanding between law enforcement and community members. Expanding Our Horizons is a powerful event capable of building community connections during a moment in history of great distrust in society.

In 2019, the Task Force won the Housing Design Challenge at Urban Institute’s national conference that paved the way for the Pathway Home program at Open Doors Kalamazoo to support housing stability.

The Task Force is now working to aid surrounding municipalities in adopting their own housing equity ordinances.

PAGE 13

Economy Design Team

Education Separation Design Team The Education Separation team was relaunched under new leadership in December 2020 and is building the foundations for effective education advocacy. The team has created four working groups to address learning in the home, professional development for educators, youth-led advocacy and educational policy.

The Economy Design team is leading the work of the Coalition for Inclusive Communities grant, which is a national network of five local community foundations focused on workplace equity and funded through Community Foundations Leads (CFLeads).

Recently, the United Way of the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Region and the Society for History and Racial Equity (SHARE) have joined the design team. A three-module series has been created and is being piloted with a small group of businesses in the region to help them grow their understanding and practices to address both racial disparities and issues related to the asset limited, income constrained, employed (ALICE) individuals in their workforce.

The design team also joined the Michigan Education Coalition and is building strategies to engage the community in breaking down the separation that exists in local school systems.

402 E. Michigan Ave Kalamazoo, MI 49008

trhtkzoo.org trht@kalfound.org