Anti-Racism Transformation Team
Kalamazoo Community Foundation’s (KZCF) vision is a community where every person can reach full potential. As we see it, a community where every person can reach full potential is one in which identities such as race and ethnicity are not predictors of an individual’s ability to live a high-quality, self-determined life.
To transform our organization and community by dismantling racism, and to be more accountable to people who are historically underrepresented, KZCF has created an Anti-Racism Transformation Team (ARTT). This work is being done in partnership with ERACCE (Eliminating Racism and Creating/Celebrating Equity) and Crossroads Antiracism Organizing and Training.
The ARTT provides essential leadership in designing the process to becoming an anti-racist institution, and ensures accountability toward this goal. The team consists of a cohort of leaders from both within the Community Foundation and from the external community charged with:
- Researching KZCF policies, practices and behaviors
- Identifying and revealing the ways racism is inherent within and perpetuated by the structure of our organization
- Leading the organization to correct/eliminate racist policies, practices and behaviors
- Fostering the internal growth and transformation of our organization by securing the training, skills, and technology needed to empower, board, staff and volunteers to dismantle racism inside our institution
- Harnessing the opportunity for leadership inherent in our position in the community to work to dismantle racism beyond our own walls.