Kalamazoo is among four Michigan locations that will begin hosting the nationwide Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation enterprise this year.

Council of Michigan Foundations will receive $4.2 million over five years from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for TRHT work in Michigan. Of that, Kalamazoo Community Foundation will receive $865,000 over those five years to facilitate the enterprise here in Kalamazoo. A portion of the WKKF funds includes a challenge grant to develop an endowment fund at the Community Foundation for this work.

"We’re grateful to CMF and WKKF for supporting this transformative engagement for our community, especially now," says Carrie Pickett-Erway, president and CEO, Kalamazoo Community Foundation. "This work will help communities uncover truth, bridge divides and jettison the belief in a hierarchy of human value."

More than 60 individuals, including many representatives from local nonprofits and businesses, are coming together in this work.

According to Lanna Lewis (pictured at left), who is leading the Community Foundation's TRHT work, the enterprise is modeled on truth and reconciliation processes that have happened around the world. "In Kalamazoo," she says, "we hope to create a platform that brings people together to build relationships, honor and elevate the powerful work already happening, and collectively develop new strategies to transform our community."

October 1, 2017