On Wednesday, October 4th, 2023, we kicked off our year of reflection, recommitment, and reimagining at a retreat in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Surrounded by nature’s bounty, in a warm cabin on a cool fall day, we listened to Mark read the letter that launched the National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities on November 7th, 2013. We remembered early funders and reflected on projects we’ve been part of over the years. We articulated lessons learned. We sat with the complexity of a decade of efforts to promote urban equity and inclusion: we had seen so many impacts of our work and were proud of our accomplishments, AND we hadn’t seen the degree of transformative change we hoped to see. The team agreed: we need to do something different moving forward. But what?
Led by our colleague Alyssa Nickell, we created space throughout the year to dig deep, to dream, to slow down, and to grow. We read, reflected, and discussed - stretching our brains. And we practiced somatic exercises - stretching our bodies and including more physical awareness in how we show up. We began to name and recognize how we were leaning into change opportunities differently, how we were already living into a new way of being in the world.
By September of this year, we had framed out our emerging strategic directions and our initial sense of our reframed offerings, based in large part on the work we’ve already been doing here in Cleveland and beyond. We wrestled with the need for both reform and abolition, and recognized that we are called to work along the continuum to ensure that all people can live their fullest lives (see Mark’s reflections on his calling as an abolitionist). And we committed to do this work using an intersectional lens: acknowledging that we are each complex beings who need to bring our full identities to each moment.
Right now, our core question is: Where are the contexts and teams most ripe for demonstrating an operating culture of racial healing, transformative interdependence and collective liberation?
And so we ask you, our beloved community:
- Are you on a similar quest?
- Would you like to learn alongside us?
- Do you know of others who would like to join this movement?
Please reach out if you’re curious and want to join us. This work is more important now than ever. We can, we must, shape the world we want to live in. It will take tremendous determination and action to focus on bridging, healing, and community building across lines of race, class and other social divides. And yet, that is the only path that will lead to healing and prosperity for all.
We leave you with a truth we have been resting in for the past few months. May it inspire and challenge you as it has us.
We can’t be free unless we are together
We can’t be together unless we are free.