Posted on Jun 3, 2023
Deaconess Foundation starts program to help Black St. Louisans recover from racism
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The Deaconess Foundation wants to help African Americans in the St. Louis region recover from the effects of racial trauma through its Institute for Black Liberation.
The institute aims to teach 25 participants how to develop a mindset that is free from internalized and structural racism. During a yearlong program that begins this fall, they will learn how to identify white supremacy and its impacts, address racism and combat stereotypes of Black people.
Funded by a $1 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the institute also will provide participants with leadership training so they can help drive change in their communities.
Black people must first understand the role that systemic and structural racism has played in their lives for generations to mentally heal and move forward, said Rudy Nickens, the institute’s program director.
“Freedom right now is the ability to imagine it, to create it and to think, ‘What would my life be like if I could live outside of the effects of those hurts’,” Nickens said. “Unless we get our minds clear and get our collective connections to this ideology, together, we'll never be able to really mount the kind of effective change and resistance that we seek.”
The institute aims to teach 25 participants how to develop a mindset that is free from internalized and structural racism. During a yearlong program that begins this fall, they will learn how to identify white supremacy and its impacts, address racism and combat stereotypes of Black people.
Funded by a $1 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the institute also will provide participants with leadership training so they can help drive change in their communities.
Black people must first understand the role that systemic and structural racism has played in their lives for generations to mentally heal and move forward, said Rudy Nickens, the institute’s program director.
“Freedom right now is the ability to imagine it, to create it and to think, ‘What would my life be like if I could live outside of the effects of those hurts’,” Nickens said. “Unless we get our minds clear and get our collective connections to this ideology, together, we'll never be able to really mount the kind of effective change and resistance that we seek.”
Deaconess Foundation starts program to help Black St. Louisans recover from racism
Posted from news.stlpublicradio.org
Racism
St. Louis
Posted 11 mo ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Research shows that regardless of a Black person’s education level, they pass along stress from racial trauma to their unborn children. It is important to break that cycle, Deaconess Foundation President and CEO Bethany Johnson-Javois said.
“I envision that the St. Louis region will see a narrative that not just tweaks around the edges, but we own the narrative about our bodies, our lives and our future,” she said. “I also think we may get a strategy that is easy, more audacious and thinking that is even more incredible than what we're seeing today, because people have freed themselves to be able to dream.”
..."Research shows that regardless of a Black person’s education level, they pass along stress from racial trauma to their unborn children. It is important to break that cycle, Deaconess Foundation President and CEO Bethany Johnson-Javois said.
“I envision that the St. Louis region will see a narrative that not just tweaks around the edges, but we own the narrative about our bodies, our lives and our future,” she said. “I also think we may get a strategy that is easy, more audacious and thinking that is even more incredible than what we're seeing today, because people have freed themselves to be able to dream.”
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