ENGAGE YOUR INNER CIRCLE – FRIENDS, FAMILY, NEIGHBORS AND COLLEAGUES

• Print and post our premade sign for display on your front door, window, porch – or even your snowman!
• Are there people in your life you’ve been wanting to discuss race or racism with, but haven’t known how? Host a dinner conversation or racial healing circle in your home – and whenever possible, invite people from different backgrounds and cultures.
• Watch the livestream curated by Ava DuVernay together and discuss how the show’s topics relate to your locality.
• Use our conversation guide to create an open, non-adversarial environment.
• Hang up poster board with headings like “‘My Racial Healing Looks Like _____.” And ask people to fill-in their ideas.
• Host a “Walk for Racial Healing” and invite as many people as possible to participate. Be sure to make your event friendly to people of all ages and abilities.

SPARK CONVERSATION AMONG CHILDREN

• Get creative with the kids by making homemade racial healing signs. Help them find a prominent place to post them.
• Read books to the children in your life that affirm the identities and backgrounds of all children. Get ideas from the American Library Association’s Unity, Kindness and Peace Reading List.

ACTIVATE YOUR SOCIAL NETWORK

• Show your support on social media by using the hashtags #HowWeHeal.
• Create a short video addressing why racial healing is important to you and post it on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat or other social networks. Be sure to use the hashtag #HowWeHeal.
• Setup an online fundraiser for organizations in your area that work towards racial healing.

GET YOUR TOWN TALKING

• Ask your elected officials about issuing a local proclamation naming Jan. 22, 2019 the National Day of Racial Healing in your community. (Download draft proclamation text here.)

• PRESCHOOL EDUCATORS

  • Connect with other teachers and suggest an activity that everyone can do from their classrooms. Include the parents of students who home-school in your outreach.
  • Read books aloud that affirm the identities and backgrounds of all children – check out these lists compiled by the ADL, the American Library Association, the School Library Journal, the Saint Paul Public Library, We Need Diverse Books, and the University of Washington Libraries.
  • Organize an age appropriate conversation with the children to first find out what they know about race. For example, the question might be as simple as asking what they know about Asian, Latino/Hispanic, African-American, White, and American Indian/Native American people. Lead them into a conversation about making the world a better place. Emphasize caring about and respecting people of different races.

  ELEMENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATORS

  • Devote classroom time to teach and/or discuss an issue related to racial healing. Consider using teaching materials from the Zinn Education Project; Teaching for Change; Teaching Tolerance; ADL; Border Crossers; or Facing History and Ourselves.
  • Organize a time for students to create art – visual or written – that inspires racial healing.
  • Facilitate conversations in school cafeterias using the resources above.
  • Connect with the local Parent Teacher Association (PTA) to organize activities.

  COLLEGE EDUCATORS

  • Reach out to the Association of American Colleges and Universities to collaborate on their efforts as an official partner in Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation efforts.
  • Connect with other universities already organizing activities for MLK day, for example, approach them about integrating racial healing day in to the existing platform.
  • Conduct outreach with the Office of Community Engagement at local colleges and universities.
  • Enlist student organizations (e.g., fraternities, sororities, clubs etc.) in developing special events.
  • Work with Housing and Residence Life in creating programs for dormitories hosted by Resident Assistants (RAs).

  ALL EDUCATORS

  • Activate your network of professionals and friends; reach out to everyone you know.
  • Speak at faculty assemblies.
  • Outreach to school Superintendents, Principals, educational associations, higher education, teachers unions, student affairs, student government, community leaders.
  • Make a commitment to continue teaching principles of racial diversity at least one month of every school quarter. Encourage your colleagues to do the same.
  • Send proposals to school districts, parents, youth groups and others inviting them to sponsor events.
  • Plan a social media strategy that reaches young people and, don’t forget to use the hashtags #HowWeHeal and #TRHT (Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation), so everyone can find it.
  • Create and encourage families to participate in special activities related to racial diversity (e.g., after-school program activity).

• WORK INTERNALLY

  • Tap internal employee resource networks to create a fun, participatory activity that highlights everyone’s commitment to racial diversity and equity in the workplace.
  • Make a dollars and cents (sense) argument that companies/businesses who have implemented culturally appropriate/racially equitable strategies are profitable. Use the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Business Case for Racial Equity

  BUILD PARTNERSHIPS

  • Enlist local area businesses and associations, like your local Chamber of Commerce, to help co-sponsor an event on the Jan. 22, 2019.
  • Kickoff a quarterly lunch and learn series on January 22, 2019. Invite local businesses, associations, unions, minority professional organizations and others for friendly and informal conversations. Create a space where colleagues can share reliable information, inspiring ideas and brainstorm solutions for workplace implementation and eventual measurement. Use our Business Case for Racial Equity as a guide.

  BE THE TALK OF THE TOWN

  • Create a Diversity Proclamation and invite businesses you are aligned with to sign; encourage all participating businesses to frame and proudly display the proclamation at their place of business. (Download a template here.)
  • Share your ideas and workplace equity initiatives via social media and use the #HowWeHeal hashtag to join the conversation nationally. Post your “solution stories” to common challenges and inspire others by sharing your accomplishments in diversity and inclusion.
  • Buy advertising space in local publications (online or in print) to let your community know that you support the National Day of Racial Healing on January 22, 2019. Or sponsor a lengthier article outlining your company’s commitment to racial equity and healing. Be sure to share your ad on your website and social media networks. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #HowWeHeal so everyone can find it.
  • Connect with your local mayor’s office to discover a cooperative project related to diversity in your business and employment sectors.
  • Ask your mayor to issue a local proclamation, naming January 19, 2019 the National Day of Racial Healing. (Download draft proclamation text here.)

• WORSHIP

  • Consider incorporating racial healing messages into your services the weekend before National Day of Racial Healing. Or, make announcements of activities your congregants can join.
  • Hold a special service, prayer gathering or meditative session in honor of racial healing on January 22, 2019.
  • Support a moment of silence and contemplation to be jointly held at a mutually agreeable time.

  BREAK BREAD

  • Extend the reach of your safe space by inviting your community’s faith leaders and laypeople – of all denominations and viewpoints – to break bread and engage in racial healing conversations together on January 22, 2019.

  DONATE

  • Take up a collection to support interfaith groups and organizations working towards racial equity and social justice. Discover how you can participate.
  • Identify faith-based activists, nonprofit organizations and others who are engaged in community racial healing. Invite them to co-develop a Day of Racial Healing event with you.

  REACH ACROSS FAITHS

  • Engage your local interfaith coalitions in cooperatively designing a racial healing event.
  • Help facilitate connections between faith groups in your city by assigning goodwill ambassadors to visit places of worship and learn what each is doing to promote racial healing.
  • Join the conversation on social networks using the hashtags #HowWeHeal and encourage others to do the same.

• • We are grateful to WebJunction for pulling together this list of 10 ways your library and community can recognize National Day of Racial Healing.

  VORACIOUS READERS

  • Peruse these lists of inspiring books:
    •    Saint Paul Public Library’s Resources on Race
    •    A Collection of Diverse Book Lists, from WeNeedDiverseBooks.org
    •    Resisting Racism, a research guide from University of Washington Libraries
    •    ADL’s Children’s Literature List
    •    Unity, Kindness and Peace Booklist by ALA (pdf)

  BOOK CLUB MEMBERS

  • Invite your book clubs to select reading material in honor of National Day of Racial Healing. Here’s how a book club in Battle Creek, Michigan got involved last year.

  LIBRARIANS AND SPECIAL EVENT COORDINATORS

  • Promote relevant and inspiring books in your displays and bulletin boards. Here are some lists to spark your thinking:
    •    Saint Paul Public Library’s Resources on Race
    •    A Collection of Diverse Book Lists, from WeNeedDiverseBooks.org
    •    Resisting Racism, a research guide from University of Washington Libraries
    •    ADL’s Children’s Literature List
    •    Unity, Kindness and Peace Booklist by ALA (pdf)
  • Invite the whole community to read the same book in honor of the National Day of Racial Healing.
  • Team up with local organizations to host a community discussion, framed by the National Day of Racial Healing Conversation Guide.
  • Host a film screening, musical conversation, cultural event or storytelling session.
  • Dedicate your children’s story hour to the National Day of Racial Healing.
  • Find a space in the library for people to contribute their declarations of support for racial healing. Use a white board, chalkboard wall or poster board with the words “I will promote racial healing by” at the top and ask your patrons to fill in their ideas.
  • Explore WebJunction’s Access and Equity topic area, as a basis for exploring racial equity opportunities with your colleagues.
  • Be sure to promote your events and efforts on social media, using the hashtag #HowWeHeal.

• Connect with other local foundations or your grantees to co-develop a meaningful and memorable program for the day.
• Create and invite other local foundations to sign a public pledge committing to investing in anti-racism initiatives. This would include a framework for strategies that favorably impact communities.
• Provide scholarships or grants to students of all ages to support meaningful activities related to advancing racial equity and diversity in your local community.
• Start a letter/email and/or phone campaign to address problems related to how resources are allocated to diversity and racial healing efforts. Invite your audience to take part in a local area event of your own creation or with an organization you have developed a partnership with.
• Take to social networks with a show of support using the hashtags #HowWeHeal and #TRHT (Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation).
• Become an active part of the solution year-round. Invest in educational programs directly tied to discussing and fostering a positive environment of racial healing.
• Buy advertising space in local publications (online or in print) to amplify the day’s activities and purpose. Ads can be simple e.g., (YOUR ORGANIZATION’S NAME) Supports the National Day of Racial Healing, Jan. 22, 2019 or a lengthier article by your organization regarding support. Share your ad in many places such as your website and social networks where you enjoy membership (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.) and, don’t forget to use the hashtags #HowWeHeal and #TRHT (Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation), so everyone can find it.
• Engage the support of local celebrities you know to take an active part in area activities.
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