Rob Corcoran (Photo: Karen Elliott Greisdorf)Rob Corcoran has facilitated dialogue, reconciliation and partnerships among diverse and polarized racial, ethnic, and religious groups in an array of locales in Europe, South Africa, India, Australia and the United States. He is the national director of Initiatives of Change and founder of Hope in the Cities, which models honest conversation and sustained partnerships across traditional boundaries. He has lived with his family in Richmond for 30 years.
Rob is available to:
- Speak at public forums
- Teach classes and lead discussions
- Facilitate workshops on community dialogue, healing racial history, and teambuilding.
August 4-10, Caux, Switzerland Rob Corcoran will speak and lead a workshop on the Trust Factor in Community Change during the week of Training by Initiatives of Change
June 2-4, Tulsa, OK
“Reconciliation in America: Moving Beyond Racial Violence”, national forum sponsored by The John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, Tulsa, OK
May 27, 5:30-7:00pm, Washington, D.C. Search for Common Ground will host a Trustbuilding book signing at their Washington office at 1601 Connecticut Avenue, 4th Floor. This event is open to the public. RSVP to (202) 265 5300. Event flyer.
May 22-23, Toronto, Canada Rob will launch Trustbuilding in Canada as the keynote speaker at the Initiatives of Change AGM in Toronto. He will also lead a workshop on ‘The Trust Factor in Community Change’. Event flyer.
May 11, Austin, TX Rob will meet with the ‘Texas after Violence group’ and faculty teaching the Difficult Dialogues curriculum at the University of Texas, Austin.
March 15, 5:30pm, Richmond, VA
Book launch event with Governor Tim Kaine at the Library of Virginia, Richmond
March 9, 9-10:30 am, Washington, DC
“Prospects for Racial Reconciliation”, the Conflict Prevention and Resolution Forum, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Nitze Building , 1740 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC
Healing the Heart of America:
A city walks through its past to build relationships for its future
DVD, Cornerstone Productions, 1993
27 minutes
In June 1993, citizens of Richmond, Virginia—the former capital of the Confederacy—initiated “Healing the Heart of America: an honest conversation on race, reconciliation and responsibility.” Joined by people from 50 cities around the US and the world, they gave recognition to unacknowledged sites and events in the 370-year history of black-white relations. This is the story of their walk through Richmond history.
Price $15.00
Downloadable Resources:
A Call to Community
Hope in the Cities urges citizens to reach out across the chaos of competing identities and interests to build a new American community honoring diversity and offering equal opportunity for all. Download A Call to Community in PDF here>>
View the most recent issue of Breakthroughs!
To comment on the book or other material available on this page
email Rob Corcoran
Praise for Trustbuilding
Using personal narrative and exhaustive reporting, Rob Corcoran chronicles how Hope in the Cities has moved what looked like an immoveable barricade. The job is not done, but Hope in the Cities has provided a map for the future.
From the foreword by Governor Tim Kaine
This is a soberly inspiring book about citizens who have struggled to find respectful and productive ways of relating through dialogue across the racial, social, and economic differences that dangerously divide us. It is sobering because they have tackled inwardly and outwardly one of the greatest threats to civilization's survival; inspiring because they have changed lives and communities. I pray fervently that the seeds they have sown will spread widely and deeply.
Harold H. Saunders, Chairman and President, International Institute for Sustained Dialogue, former Assistant Secretary of State
Rob Corcoran's Trustbuilding reaffirms the moral imperative inherent in racial reconciliation. We are each responsible for spanning the great chasms created by racist ideology, widened by racial oppression, and deepened by historical blindness. Corcoran urges us to engage one another, build bridges, and cross the remaining divides. He offers us examples of what is possible, and tools with which to begin our own work.
Hannibal B. Johnson, attorney, consultant, and author of Black Wall Street, Up from the Ashes, and Acres of Aspiration
What a fine, eloquent, needed book…30 years of work and witness in Richmond have produced a document both as convincing as it is wide-ranging …I find the scope and narrative qualities of the work very impressive indeed.
Donald Shriver, President Emeritus, Union Theological Seminary, New York
Trustbuilding is a visionary, compelling account of healing and change. Don't just read it; share it with others in your community and use it as a roadmap for personal and public transformation.
Martha McCoy, Executive Director, Everyday Democracy
Corcoran blends personal narrative with history, social science, ethics, and social reform. It is written with such clarity and with such skillful use of the first person that it will appeal to a wide audience, including the general public, but also to scholars, community organizers, group facilitators, people in non-profit organizations, particularly people interested in personal transformation and social justice.
John Moeser, Senior Fellow Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, University of Richmond
University of Virginia Press, February 2010