About Facing Race
Facing Race We're All In This Together® Initiative
Safe. Valued. Respected. Words that represent what we aspire to in our lives. However, racism plays a role in compromising these values for us all. To address racism, The Saint Paul Foundation launched the Facing Race We're all in this together initiative® in 2004.
Vision Statement
The vision of the initiative is to create a more equitable, just and open region in which everyone feels safe, valued and respected.
Goals
The goals of the Facing Race We're All in This Together Initiative® fall into two categories: 1) addressing racism at the individual level; and 2) addressing racism at the institutional level.
How It Began
The Saint Paul Foundation has a long history of taking action to foster diversity and achieve equity in academic, economic and social opportunities. In 2002, the Foundation convened an Anti-Racism Advisory Committee as its partner in guiding this complex work and completed an assessment to learn how Saint Paul and surrounding communities were doing in terms of identifying and dealing with racism. Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice at the Humphrey Institute and the Wilder Research Center served as the lead researchers on the project.
The research revealed that racism is not a thing of the past - yet many in our community were eager to address the issue. Researchers recommended that the Foundation take a role in ending racism in our community by designing strategies to address racism at the individual and institutional level. The strategies and actions of the initiative are informed by the research team's recommendations.
