Racial Healing Initiative
Racial Healing Initiative
In 2022, The Center For Healing and Liberation held a leadership role in implementing the Racial Healing Initiative (RHI) to foster racial healing and systemic change in retreat centers around the nation. Retreat centers can be refuges of healing, renewal and discovery, but most are historically white-led with majority-white participants. The RHI initiative works to help structures mature beyond nominal inclusion so that BIPOC people can experience full and authentic belonging on an energetic level, and wholeheartedly engage in rest, renewal and exploration in retreat center settings.
RHI is a project held in partnership with Commonweal, the Fetzer Institute, and the Retreat Center Collaboration (RCC). It is funded through a Kellogg Foundation grant. In 2022, guided by the Center For Healing and Liberation, the RHI team delivered trainings in six retreat centers and offered racial healing community calls and workshops for RCC members, overall serving an estimated 300+ people. The multi-year initiative is being developed in phases and could ultimately be scaled to reach thousands of people. In 2023, after helping to successfully establish this initiative, the Center For Healing and Liberation stepped back from direct RHI involvement while continuing to offer our strongest support.
