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Greetings!
Many of our readers were at the 15th annual Metropolitan Richmond Day breakfast this week. At a time of much division everywhere it is good to come together and be reminded of our shared responsibility for the community. In this issue you will read a report of John W. Franklin's challenge to those gathered at the breakfast.
Further stories include a report of The Trust Factor that took place in Washington, DC, last month and a reflection from Rebecca Davis, program coordinator, Peace and Conflict Resolution program at American University, one of the partner organizations.
You will also read about how Richmond's story has been shared in Canada, UK and the Netherlands.
This is the last issue of Breakthroughs for this year. We approach the year-end with gratitude for all the support Hope in the Cities has received and the opportunities we have been given to make a difference in 2011.
We wish our readers a happy holiday season!
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Telling the Whole Story in all its Complexity
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John W. Franklin
(Photo: Karen Elliott Greisdorf)
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"It's not enough to know our own history," says John W. Franklin, "We must know each other's histories... We may learn things that will change our world view." Franklin, the director of partnerships and international programs at the Smithsonian's Museum of African American History and Culture, which is due to open in 2015, spoke to 350 people at the 15th annual Metropolitan Richmond Day. The Richmond Times-Dispatch headlined an op-ed by Rob Corcoran: "Fifteen Years of Truth and Trustbuilding."
Franklin told the audience of non-profit, business, and government leaders that the new museum would be "a place of dialogue and healing." Throughout his talk he emphasized the complexity and ambiguity of history. His great-grandparents were brought to Oklahoma in the 1930s as slaves of the Chickasaws during the infamous Trail of Tears when thousands of Native Americans were removed from their homelands in the southeast.
In an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Franklin noted that Richmond's former slave-trade partner, Liverpool, UK, has a black community that dates to 1650 but is still treated like immigrants. At the time of the French Revolution, some 25,000 black people lived in France. The 1850 arrival of Chinese immigrants in Washington, DC, belies the attempt to frame that city's story strictly in black and white terms, he said. To understand US history, you have to understand the role of Native Americans, Asians, and Latinos, "not just in the past, but in the present."
Franklin told the breakfast forum that Americans are often taught that the first Africans arrived in North America at Jamestown in 1619, but Africans were present in Florida by the early 1500s. And while about 500,000 Africans were brought to the United States, millions more went to the Caribbean and South America. "This is a hemispheric issue. History needs to be discovered in Brazil, Puerto Rico, and even Canada."
He recalled when he first met people from Richmond's Hope in the Cities team in Liverpool in 2007, at the opening of the International Slavery Museum. Three years later he met them again at a national symposium in Tulsa, OK. The destruction of Tulsa's black business community by white mobs in 1921 "was a history so horrific that it was only 89 years later that white and black began to discuss it publicly. I asked the organizers of the symposium why people from Richmond were there and they told me that 'we needed the best people in racial reconciliation and so we turned to Hope in the Cities.'"
Franklin said that he had walked Richmond's historic slave trail. "It is very courageous of an American city to reveal its past and to share it with visitors." He said that nothing comparable existed in Washington, DC, although the whole capital area had once been plantations, and the White House and Capitol building were constructed with enslaved labor. "People don't know that slavery existed in New England until early in the nineteen century or that Rhode Island was a major slave trading base," he added.
Dr Edward Ayers, president of the University of Richmond and Dr Lauranett Lee, curator of African American History at the Virginia Historical Society, co-chaired the breakfast forum. The previous night the university hosted a reception in partnership with Hope in the Cities, the NAACP, and the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia.
Photos are posted on Facebook
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Trust. Factor it in.
 While the Occupy Wall Street protests exposed deep divides in the USA, a group in Washington, DC, was building trust and dialogue. Mary Ella Keblusek reports in Global Update on The Trust Factor. These are excerpts from her story.
"Ayear ago when we began our planning, we couldn't have known how relevant this theme and location would be," says Rob Corcoran, national director of Initiatives of Change. "With the government in paralysis, financial systems closing down, and the global order in chaos, holding such an event in Washington, DC, created a sense of focus and urgency among the more than one hundred participants."
The Trust Factor was a series of panels, dialogues, workshops and other events held in October in venues throughout the city to explore the need for trust in politics, race, economics, and religion. The foundation for the week was laid from the beginning, with a spirit of partnership that brought together young leadership from more than 10 organizations with local, national, and global outreach.
A highlight of the week was the honoring of four renowned trustbuilders at a reception hosted by Australian Ambassador Kim Beazley, who used these words to describe a trustbuilder: "Our societies are ready for humans who lead in humility, listen to others, and exercise their conscience."
Awardees included Terry Flood, co-founder and executive director of Jubilee Jobs, for her work to build trust across economic divides in helping over 22,000 people in the DC area obtain jobs and self-sufficiency, and Dr Gail Christopher, vice president for programs at the WK Kellogg Foundation, for leading her organization to a commitment to address racial healing and inequities.
 | Azhar Hussain, Dr Douglas Johnston, Terry Flood, Dr Gail Christopher
(Photo: Karen Elliott Greisdorf) |
Awards were also given to two individuals with the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy (ICRD): Dr Douglas Johnston, founder and president, and Azhar Hussain, senior vice president for preventive diplomacy. ICRD has helped the US foreign policy establishment and academia to focus on the importance of understanding and respecting the faith of those in other cultures in the context of diplomatic efforts.
Two events focused on the systemic problems in the financial system. Lester Myers, an attorney, CPA, Georgetown University professor and Caux Roundtable Fellow spoke of a vast failure in trust at almost every level: bank officers, borrowers, regulators, corporate executives, credit agencies, politicians, lawyers, CPAs, and the media. "'Each group pursued its own agenda, while remaining morally oblivious and even willfully blind to the impact of their actions on others." In a panel discussion on socially responsible investing led by the Calvert Foundation, we learned that individuals have more economic power than most realize. The panel encouraged careful consideration of whom we choose to bank and invest with, so that our money can support local needs, instead of anonymous global projects with little oversight or accountability.
A workshop, drawing on the methodology of Hope in the Cities, offered trustbuilding tools for racial healing and community change. It explored the challenge of creating an environment where difficult truths can be spoken, allowing healing and cooperation. Community organizer and trainer Dushaw Hocket summed up his participation: "Trust is fragile and is based on our ability to embrace and hold multiple and competing truths, allowing individuals to accept the facts, while maintaining hope for a more trusting future."
The final day addressed civic participation and responsibility in building trust in public life. Panelist Mee Moua of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, and a former state senator, encouraged participants to remember the humanity of elected officials. "We must create authentic relationships with our civic and elected leaders, instead of transactional relationships where we only contact them when we need something."'
The Trust Factor week was a success on many levels. It demonstrated the power of broad collaboration with partners and showed the importance of considering trust from many perspectives. It is clear this is only the beginning. The 'trust' conversation will continue in DC, and migrate in various forms to other locations. For more stories and two YouTube video interviews from The Trust Factor, check out www.us.iofc.org/trust-factor-news.
Read the full story in Global Update here.
Watch a photo montage on YouTube
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Trustbuilding Conversations in Six European Cities
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Radio Interview in Nottingham, UK (Photo: Willemijn Lambert) |
"Whatever the differences between Europe and America, the focus on trust as an indispensable foundation for constructive change in community relations, economics, and politics resonates everywhere," writes US IofC national director Rob Corcoran following a twelve-day visit to six cities in the UK and Netherlands. Corcoran's book, Trustbuilding, provided the basis for talks and workshops in London, Nottingham, Bradford, Liverpool, The Hague and Amsterdam. "Where does trust most need to be built in my community? And how do we move from a mentality of fear and control to a process of real partnership leading to constructive change?" Corcoran asked his audiences. He was the guest speaker at a public seminar hosted by Nottingham's Interfaith Council and led a workshop at the request of Dr Musharraf Hussain, director of the Karimia Institute, a leading British Muslim organization engaged in community development, adult classes, and interfaith work. He did several interviews on the institute's Radio Dawn. In Bradford he spoke at the dinner for the university's Rotary Peace Fellow and met with leaders of the council representing the city's 86 mosques. They considered: "What is the conversation that is not taking place? What is the topic we fear to put on the table?" Students at Liverpool Hope University attended a workshop organized by Charlotte Sawyer, a graduate, and Jonty Herman, the student union vice president. Liverpool Hope recently launched its School for Changemakers program. The vice chancellor and rector, Gerald Pillay, says it aims to prepare students "not only for the world of work but the work of the world." In London, people from many cultures and continents crowded a forum at Greencoat Place where Corcoran described key steps in trustbuilding. He concluded, "Difficulties and even painful history, if faced honestly, can become our most powerful assets." (Read a full report of the Greencoat forum) Students of international journalism in Amsterdam were particularly interested in stories of how to engage with the "other" - dialogues with Muslims and evangelical Christians in Richmond and the interactions with the local newspaper that encouraged a more inclusive and constructive approach to news coverage.  | |
Trustbuilding Workshop in The Hague (Photo Rob Corcoran)
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Despite the Netherland's reputation for tolerance, there's unease about the difficulty of integrating an increasingly diverse national community and the extent to which right-wing parties control the political process. After a lecture in The Hague, one woman said, "I have lived here for thirty years but I still am not treated as fully Dutch." This prompted considerable discussion among the audience and agreement that there is still much need for "honest conversation." After a final all-day workshop for a diverse group of young professionals and community activists, one wrote, "I valued the trust in the room. It was a safe place where you could connect with yourself and let your guard down." Many appreciated learning practical tools. As one said, "I want to use the things I've learned today in daily life with my family and people at work." Another wrote, "I want to have more honest conversation, especially with people I find hard to deal with." Read Rob Corcoran's blogs Download the full text of the speech at the Greencoat Forum Photos are posted on Facebook Also read about Trustbuilding tools shared in Vancouver, Canada |
Tools for Building Trust on a Daily Basis
 Rebecca Davis is the Program Coordinator, International Peace & Conflict Resolution at the School of International Service at American University, one of the partner organizations for The Trust Factor 2011.
At a time when some of us may feel discouraged by political gridlock, ongoing economic hardship, and a range of social problems that can seem so much larger than any one of us, I was reminded this week of the potential for individuals to positively impact their communities. Spending a week engaged with individuals and organizations partnering on The Trust Factor has expanded my hope for positive change, even in a town best known for its cynicism and stagnation.
For me, the beauty of the skills involved in building trust is the simplicity of actions we can take and the opportunity for every one of us to build trust in some way. As I move forward from my participation in The Trust Factor, I am aware of four significant take-aways that I can infuse into my daily interactions.
First, each of us would do well to spend a few minutes at the end of each day reflecting on how our actions throughout the day built, broke, or repaired trust. Dushaw Hockett, founder and director of SPACES (Safe Places for the Advancement of Community and Equity), explained our daily interactions with others as constantly, though often sub-consciously, violating or repairing trust. In an effort to learn from these frequent experiences and to increase our trustbuilding actions, we could each engage in a self-reflective practice to increase our awareness of how our actions from the smallest to the largest serve a goal of building trust.
Second, if I could point to one theme I heard in each Trust Factor session I attended, it would be the importance of relationship building. We are all social beings, and we appreciate being in meaningful relationships with other human beings. These relationships have a greater social impact when they create a bridge to a group or an experience with which we are unfamiliar. Building relationships with those who are different from ourselves whether in age, race, religion, social class or other aspects of identity, provides great opportunity for us to check our assumptions. We can work together to break down myths and stereotypes about "others" which can be easily entrenched when we do not have these personal relationships.
Third, part of the importance of relationship building is the opportunity to see firsthand the humanity of the "other." Too often they become an "other" group once they are elected and are held to different standards and no longer seen as fellow human beings themselves. On the heels of the Trust Factor, President Obama's speech at the long-awaited dedication to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial offered an important illustration of the shared humanity of those who find themselves on different sides of contentious issues. "If [Dr King] were alive today, I believe he would remind us that the unemployed worker can rightly challenge the excesses of Wall Street without demonizing all who work there.... He would want us to know we can argue fiercely about the proper size and role of government without questioning each other's love for this country.... He would call on us to assume the best in each other rather than the worst." We can each certainly participate in a cultural shift in Washington by assuming the best of intentions of those we encounter. We do not need to agree on all the issues to build trust in this way, and we open up a world of possibilities we could never discover without coming from this open-minded starting point.
Finally, I was struck by a particular challenge to the work of trustbuilding. "Every American has been given tacit permission to unleash their anxieties on those they believe to be the 'other,'" former Minnesota state senator Mee Moua remarked. Certainly we have all witnessed such unleashing. It is the idea of "tacit permission" that provides the key to trustbuilding work. This permission only exists because we allow it. Just as each of us can make commitments to reflect on our own actions to build or violate trust, we can also examine our own opportunities to deny this permission. We must ask why these anxieties exist. Where are these fears coming from that unleash such ugliness toward our neighbors, colleagues, family members, acquaintances? Can we build new relationships-bridges-with those who are feeling threatened in some way? Are we feeling threatened? Can we take risks to create the space for relationship building where the trust deficit has done the greatest damage? And when we are not able to build such bridges, what actions can we take to withdraw this tacit permission for treating people as "Others" rather than as fellow human beings?
I hope the significance of trust as a tool for social change will reach our country's leaders and decision-makers and that more examples of its large scale impact will be highlighted by the media in the near future. But for now, I am hopeful because The Trust Factor has underscored the accessibility of building trust in ways that show how we can personally impact those we encounter each day.Read the complete commentary here.
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Hope you enjoyed this issue of Breakthroughs Online. Please share this newsletter with your friends and forward it to those you know have a passion for trustbuilding. Hope in the Cities is a program of Initiatives of Change. Visit our website for more information.
Thank you! |
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Consider a Year-end Gift to HIC
As we approach this season of giving please consider a gift to Hope in the Cities. Sixty percent of our support comes from people just like you! No gift is too large or too small.
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Author Rob Corcoran's most recent Blog,
A New Generation of Leaders
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The Imam & The Pastor
"The African model for finding peace amid the continent's warring communities"
The Times (London)
 An African Answer
The second film about the work of these two African peacemakers.
Read the full report, "Turning Enemies into Friends," of the US launch of An African Answer at the US Institute for Peace and the UN as well as other venues in Washington and New York. |
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The 2011 Caux Report
is available on-line or from our office by request.
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The 2010 Annual Report of Initiatives of Change
is available on-line.
 This report highlights several important ways in which IofC is carrying out its mission to inspire, equip, and engage individuals as trustbuilders.
Download the report
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Hope in the Cities
is a program of
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