Center for Community Trustbuilding

Hope in the Cities offers Richmond, Virginia, as a Center for Community Trusbuilding. This national resources is a center of excellence and a model where processes for trustbuilding, reconciliation, and community change are regularly learned and effectively practiced.

Proud of its history as a birthplace of democracy, Richmond was also second only to New Orleans in the domestic slave trade market, served as the capital of the Confederacy, and was a leader of Massive Resistance.

Richmond was also the first U.S. city to publicly and inclusively acknowledge its racial history and Virginia led the way for the nation in the state’s apology for its support of slavery and segregation.

The Center for Community Trustbuilding serves as a national resource to increase the capacity of community leaders to acknowledge and heal the wounds of racial history and its legacy and to sustain initiatives that build strong, inclusive communities. A variety of programs are offered:

Dialogues

Using a distinctive methodology for honest conversation, HIC creates safe spaces where people from diverse and/or polarized factions come together to wrestle with the realities of their divisions and find steps toward collaboration and respect. This effective model has been used to design various dialogues for faith communities, non-profits, the private sector, and government. The curricula include a six-part Call to Community Dialogue, Metropolitan Dialogues on race, economics, and jurisdiction, a sustained dialogue between Muslims and Evangelical Christians, and issues of public education.

Training

Trustbuilding training programs promote an integrated approach to community change. They increase the capacity of communities to overcome divisions of race, culture, economics, and politics by creating a network of trustbuilders.

Offered in different lengths and formats these programs are custom designed for the audience whether college or high school students, civic associations, faith communities or corporate groups. Longer models, spread over several days or weekends, equip community leaders with skills to lead dialogues, to create diverse teams and networks, and to become catalyst for change.

Walking Through History

This physical walk that begins at Manchester Docks on the James River has at its core the concept of Sacred Stories and is a model for an accurate, respectful, inclusive, public, telling of the story. It establishes an agenda for healing by:

• Allowing the conscience of large numbers of people to be mobilized.
• Liberating all parties by breaking the cycle of guilt, avoidance, and resentment.
• Enabling people of different backgrounds to take ownership of shared history.

Public Forums and Events

Hope in the Cities offers conferences, seminars, and forums open to the entire Richmond region with the purpose of challenging the community to wrestle with difficult issues. Events such as Metropolitan Richmond Day bring in national practitioners and local experts to help the community find collaborative approaches.

Community Response

Hope in the Cities has an expert group of facilitators available to assist the community with difficult conversation. In response to tensions or crises HIC offers interventions that are designed to fit the specif needs of the group or organization.