2024 Program:
Reparations and Reconciliation
Thursday November 21
We invite Facing Race attendees to join us for a session exploring the creation process and lessons learned from the Reparations Grantmaking Blueprint, a tool designed by reparations movement leaders to guide a donor collaborative in investing in the reparations movement in a strategic, effective, and equity-centered manner. This will include:
- Grounding the session in the three key roles that philanthropy can play in catalyzing the reparations movement and a culture of repair
- Discussing our approach to movement-led strategy development, including reflections from movement leaders that are part of the Blueprint Steering Committee
- Engaging with the draft Blueprint, including some of the strategic milestones, activities, and tradeoffs that emerged in the process
- Discussing and reflecting on opportunities for participants to advance collaborative/movement-led strategy development and/or the reparations movement from their institutional contexts.
Our hope is that session participants feel more prepared action to change grantmaking strategy development practices in their own institutions, in the form of:
- Identifying specific and creative ideas about how they can implement similar frameworks in their institutions (e.g., particular program areas, potential partners, etc.)
- Analyzing their field’s landscape to clarify how and where collaboration will be valuable
- Understanding opportunities to deepen their institutions’ engagement with reparations and racial repair
This breakout session will be structured into two parts. First, the current JIC Co-Chairs will present a history of the Just Imperative Committee. This will include the overview of the committee and its objective, as well as key challenges, wins, and learning lessons from the three year-long detailed Truth, Accountability, Repair, and Healing Process (TARH). For instance, the Foundation now has two dedicated staff members in the newly created equity office. We will present from our reparative action steps should our proposal move forward. This part of the session will close by highlighting the work that lies ahead for the committee. Second, the session will have an interactive component where session participants will have an opportunity to reflect on their own organizations’ internal equity and inclusion journey. This part of the session will include small group discussion guided by a reflection guide and an opportunity for participants to share their organizational experiences and to learn from the experiences of others. By the end of the session, we hope that participants have learned about MacArthur Foundation’s recent equity and inclusion journey; had an opportunity to reflect on, and share, their organizational experiences; and have learned from the equity and inclusion journeys of other organizations.
Frame-breaking narratives shape-shift our collective landscape, offering clues about the value of our past in service of tomorrow. "Rooted: Cultivating Black Wealth in Place" is more than a wealth-building strategy and potential policy innovation. Rooted is an invitation to think and act differently, to step boldly into a new story designed to signal a new way forward, toward a St. Louis where every neighborhood is a chosen place to live, raise children, and grow old.
Join us for a film screening and panel discussion; hear from participants, activation partners, and journalists actively shaping stories of possibility and transformation. Get familiar with "Rooted: Cultivating Black Wealth in Place" by stepping into Invest STL’s innovative approach to narrative reframing and storytelling.
Meet neighborhood residents participating in Rooted through the content and meet the content creators through the panel and Q&A. Invest STL is not only embarking on a three-year journey with participants in the initiative but also developing and producing a storytelling partnership with Missouri School of Journalism professors Ron Stodghill and Alicia Haywood to span the breadth of the initiative.
They will be joined by Invest STL's Narrative + Communications Partner, Michael Pagano, to discuss these emerging stories, what we are hearing, how we are listening, and where we might be heading.
The Race and Democracy work at the Horizons Project seeks to employ futures thinking frameworks to advance racial justice. Futures thinking frameworks and analytical tools have proven valuable in helping leaders, organizations, policymakers, and activists make more strategic decisions about policies, priorities, strategic plans, outcomes, and goals. However, we have not seen these tools equally applied to the challenge of organizing to build collective power for advancing racial justice.
The Horizons Project applies futures thinkings frameworks and analytical tools for the specific purpose of advancing racial justice. In addition, our futures thinking frameworks specifically engage the narrative competencies required to advance racial justice. For example, how should leaders engage in conversations that have deep resonances in demonstrative realities of racial injustice? Conversely, how should organizers and activists push against racial stereotypes embedded within organizational decision-making? What skills are needed to re-shape racial narratives?
What practices should leaders adopt to transform their institutional culture and prioritize racial justice within their organizations? How might these leaders imagine racial justice within their organizations and spheres of influence? How might organizers and activists advance institution’s capacity to reshape public services for better racial equity outcomes?