Racial inequity is one of the most destructive remnants of an anachronistic tradition in this country, resulting from the implementation of policies and systems of oppression that have adversely impacted individuals and communities of color for generations. There are few places this inequity is more rampant than in Chicago, a place that has consistently and completely maintained that inequity through racially unjust policies and targeted disinvestment. An assessment and acknowledgment of this truth, coupled with racial healing and transformation is needed to begin to dismantle the systems that uphold racial inequities.

Woods Fund Chicago invites you to join us on a journey to eradicating these racial inequities.

Since June 2017, Woods Fund Chicago has been serving as the administering and lead organization for a Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) effort called TRHT Greater Chicago. The TRHT is a comprehensive, national and community-based process to “unearth and jettison the deeply held, and often unconscious, beliefs created by racism”.  Support for the effort was provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF).
 
TRHT Greater Chicago is anchored by a group of individuals representing diverse sectors and backgrounds who first coalesced at the WKKF TRHT summit in December 2016. Following the summit, this group submitted a successful application to WKKF to support a TRHT effort in greater Chicago. The mission of TRHT Greater Chicago is to proliferate healing and equity within individuals, neighborhoods, and communities to change the race narrative to fuel transformation, erase the belief in racial hierarchy, and drive towards racial equity.

TRHT Greater Chicago will create regional transformational change in four areas: truth and narrative; healing; law and policy; and youth. Each was the focus of an individual working group or “design team” during the planning phase from August 2017 to March 2018.

Based on the collective aspirations of the design teams, an overarching vision emerged: We envision Greater Chicago to be a region that holds promise for all; a region whose residents have embraced racial healing and equity and rejected the false construct of racial hierarchy – believing and knowing that all people have equal value and worth; and a region where equitable policies are in place. In this new reality, cross-generational, racially and ethnically diverse people of Greater Chicago, feel safe to enjoy the comforts of a peaceful, safe, supportive, and empowered existence.

View the Strategic Framework synopsis to learn more.

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