Spirituality and Racial Justice: Changing Systems and Structures

Broadly Spiritual Programming Series

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Do you want to change institutional racism?

This small group program invites participants to formulate their own responses to racism in their workplaces, places of worship, and communities.

Program Overview

Spirituality and Racial Justice will challenge your own thinking about racism, its causes, and its impact, while helping you discern practical steps to address it.

Spirituality and Racial Justice: Changing Systems and Structures introduces the tools participants need to address racism at a systemic level — whether they decide to work for criminal justice reform, advocate for fair housing, close the racial wealth gap, or dismantle racism within their workplaces, places of worship, or other communities to which they belong. In this program, which contains eight regular sessions, plus an opening retreat and an immersion experience, small groups learn about key obstacles to racial justice that are embedded within our institutions, systems, and structures. They are then equipped to mobilize people and resources to dismantle those obstacles.  Through grounding in mindfulness and meditation, your group will leave the program ready to work for racial justice in your nation, local community, and the institutions of which you are a part.Before taking this program, we highly recommend taking one of JustFaith Ministries’ other racial justice programs, Spirituality and Racial Equity or Spirituality and Racial Healing. Both provide foundational information to understanding racist systems and structures.

Spirituality and Racial Justice is not based on any one specific religion or denomination. It is designed for a more broadly spiritual audience. Those who are unaffiliated with a church or religious tradition or who identify as “spiritual but not religious” will find the program content relevant and meaningful. This version of the program may also resonate with an interfaith audience. Meditative practices at the beginning and end of each session provide a spiritual foundation for the program. These practices draw from Hindu and Buddhist practices of mindfulness but do not arise from any one particular religious tradition. (A specifically Christian version of “Faith and Racial Justice” is also available).

Program Goals

Goals for Spirituality and Racial Justice: Changing Systems and Structures include:

Educate participants about systemic racism

Educate participants about key obstacles that perpetuate racism

Provide participants with practical tools for dismantling systemic racism

Sessions

Spirituality & Racial Justice consists of an opening retreat, eight 2-hour sessions and an immersion experience.

Recommended group size is 8-14.

Program Framework & Session Topics

  • One-Day Retreat: Community-Building & Self-Reflection

  • Session 1: Introduction to the Racial Wealth Gap

  • Session 2: Addressing Racism in our Communities and Institutions

  • Session 3: Redlining and its Consequences: Confronting White Myths about “The Hood”

  • Session 4: Communities and Reentry

  • Session 5: Organizing for Change (Guest Speaker)

  • Session 6: The Reparations Debate

  • Immersion Experience (to be determined by the group)

  • Session 7: Mobilizing for Criminal Justice Reform

  • Session 8: Commitment to Action

Sessions include:

Meditation and mindfulness practices
Dialogue
Active listening
Relationship building
Videos/guest speaker

Want to know more?

An overview, sample session, and program booklet are available for free download.

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Program Promotion

Need help inviting people to your small group?

This program promotion kit contains a program booklet, a program image, a promo video, and other materials.

Cost

We believe strongly in making our programs inclusive and available to everyone

Cost should never be a barrier to participation, and we are committed to working with individuals and organizations to ensure meaningful access through flexible pricing options. Why do we use a sliding fee scale?

There are Two Registration Options:

Option 1: Individual Participant Registration

Participants register and pay individually using a sliding-scale fee of $45, $60, or $75 per person, based on ability to pay. If $45 is still inaccessible, participants can choose the Pay-What-You-Can option to choose a price that is right for them.

  • There is no charge for up to two facilitators.
  • A minimum of 8 participants is strongly recommended.

Option 2: Organization-Sponsored Registration

A church or organization may choose to cover registration for all participants using a sliding fee scale of $45, $60, or $75 per person, based on ability to pay.

  • The organization will be billed a flat rate of the amount chosen below, which covers up to 8 participants.
  • For groups larger than 8, the organization will be invoiced an additional $45, $60, or $75 per participant when the group begins, price depending on the chosen amount below.
  • If the lowest fee is inaccessible to your organization or ministry, choose the Pay-What-You-Can Rate to learn about shared-cost or reduced-fee options.

What the Registration Fee Includes

  • Comprehensive materials for each session (instant download upon purchase)
  • Facilitation scripts, guidance, and training resources
  • Retreat and immersion planning assistance
  • Adaptations for virtual groups
  • Direct access to program staff for ongoing support
  • Books are an additional cost and may be purchased separately through the bookstore.

To ensure our programs remain accessible while remaining sustainable, we utilize a sliding fee scale of $45 to $75 for our registrations. We invite you to choose the registration tier that best reflects you or your faith community's current financial reality. Paying on the higher end allows us to keep the program affordable for all.

We also offer a Pay-What-You-Can Rate. If the lowest rate does not seem accessible to you or your church at this time, don’t let this be a barrier to participation. Contact our staff here to learn about shared-cost or reduced fee options.

 

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What our program participants are saying

What I have learned about Jim Crow, lynching, slavery by another name, does not let me forget and just walk away from injustice when there is something I can do.

Daniel S.

I have been inspired and nourished by the Spirituality and Racial Justice meditative/mindfulness practices offered in this program and plan to continue to integrate them into my life. This spiritually inclusive module has provided me with a much needed common framework builder in our community to prepare us for the long haul anti racism work that must be continued in our communities to interrupt racist systems and structures.

Teresa Stanley