Examples of Aligned Work

Examples of Aligned Work

We acknowledge that a Culture of Health and a culture of embedded racism cannot co-exist. The Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) framework depicts a comprehensive approach to addressing racism as both a belief system grounded in a hierarchy of human value that’s embedded in a structural legacy of exclusion that requires a collective effort to overcome. 

Because our approach is comprehensive, this program is designed to bring together people from many different industries and disciplines. We are looking for participants from a wide range of backgrounds who will bring diverse expertise and experience to the program. Our first cohort included visual artists, writers, researchers, academics, advocates, leaders in tech and so many more fields. We encourage you to view our list of program participants for more information. 

Here are a few examples of work aligned with each pillar of the TRHT framework:

  • Racial healing and relationship-building: Healing and building relationships across all racial and ethnic lines is central to advancing equity. This includes the work of racial healing practitioners, circle facilitators, community bridge-builders, faith leaders, and local civic leaders, among others.
  • Narrative Change: Mass communication, public education, entertainment, and other storytelling media have been used throughout this country’s history to propel, perpetuate, and maintain a false racial hierarchy. Today’s times require innovative strategies for spreading truthful stories that assert and honor our equal value as human beings. Examples are far-ranging and can include museum exhibits, film, mapping projects, executive orders, resolutions, ordinances, and declarations that advance equity, creating curricula that honor the diverse communities in which children learn, and efforts to redesign public spaces to honor our shared history. 
  • Separation: Keeping groups of people separated has been and remains a core strategy for maintaining the myth of racial hierarchy. This has been accomplished through policies such as residential and school segregation and myriad other systems designed to perpetuate separation of groups and deny equal access to opportunity. Advocates have worked for decades to address legacy barriers to opportunity in housing, immigration, access to food, healthcare, transportation, and family security.
  • Law: A state succeeds or fails based on its laws, governance structures and systems. From the outset, laws governing this country were designed to perpetuate racial hierarchy. Episodic and successful efforts to change old laws and redress their harms continue with state, local and federal agencies. Significant work remains to be done in the areas of voting rights, immigration, policing and our justice system.
  • Economy: Racial wealth and income gaps persist as hallmarks of the legacy of entrenched racial hierarchy. Racially concentrated poverty is another manifestation of limited economic opportunity within BIPOC communities. Innovative and sustainable strategies are needed in this area of work including income and asset strategies to promote economic mobility, equitable investment and development that build on community assets, and compensatory redress to rectify historical policies that economically disadvantage communities of color. 

(Click on the image above to download the interactive PDF)