TRHT Campus Centers

"We must be open to expanding our hearts and minds. We also must be courageous in rooting out and transforming the policies, practices, and procedures of higher education that create racial hierarchies in our relationships with Baltimore’s communities."

-Eric Ford & Frank Anderson

2018 AAC&U Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Institute Video

Since 2017, The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has partnered with a total of 29 institutions of higher education to create TRHT Campus Centers. Each institution is working to create and implement action plans that address inequalities and systemic barriers in both community and institutional settings.

Each year, AAC&U hosts a TRHT Campus Center Institute as a space for capacity building among new and returning institutions. Ultimately, the goal of AAC&U’s effort is the development of at least 150 self-sustaining, community-integrated TRHT Campus Centers

UMBC Campus Center

In 2017, UMBC was named one of the original 10 campus centers. As a TRHT campus center, we recognize that this work requires a significant narrative change​, one where Baltimore City is no longer described through a deficit lens, but instead valued as a source of culture, knowledge, and talent. This shift will require us to transcend both the physical boundaries of campus/community, as well as the psychological/social boundaries and biases that have traditionally worked to​ separate Baltimore City resident from the benefits of higher ​education​.

We Envision:

A community where students, youth and their families, both on campus and in the Baltimore region, play an active role in transforming the systems that have upheld racial hierarchies in our communities for too long.

A community where Greater Baltimore youth, families, community leaders, advocates and activists value UMBC as their university--and where UMBC faculty and staff, graduates, undergraduates, alumni and volunteers, value Baltimore as their home.

Our Model

  • The first ingredient includes truth telling, which means taking the time to learn about the history of oppression and racial inequity as it relates to a particular community within which partnerships exist. This also requires being truthful with oneself and grappling with one’s role within that history. Truth telling is meant to be an ongoing process of learning and self-reflection.

  • The second ingredient includes racial healing. Racial healing circles are an intentional space where stakeholders can come together and give equal voice to the experiences that have shaped their racial identities. For our model, racial healing is coupled with the Virtues Project™, which is “a global grassroots initiative to inspire the practice of virtues in everyday life, sparking a global revolution of kindness, justice, and integrity.” (The Virtues Project™)

  • The third ingredient includes transformation. In our model, we are not just seeking individual transformation, but the transformation of systems and structures that have created barriers to racial equity. Therefore, it is critical that as stakeholders engage in truth telling and racial healing, TRHT Centers are committed to identifying and removing barriers as they are revealed.

Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation are the key ingredients, but they can be combined in different ways. In some cases, everything goes into the pot at once and continues to cook at the same time. In other cases, some of the ingredients were already in the pot to begin with. In all cases, manifestations of the model look different based on the context and the people involved, but this list of ingredients is still a helpful reminder for what needs to be included.

Key Tasks

  • Forming an advisory team responsible for:

    1) communicating the goals and the work of the TRHT Campus Center

    2) aligning the work within the larger TRHT enterprise and within current UMBC initiatives

    3) supporting a leadership team with infrastructure and sustainability.

  • Forming a leadership team, comprised of student and community leaders, responsible for:

    1) shaping the content of the TRHT work

    2) informing and strengthening TRHT practices

    3) forming true partnerships across campus and community boundaries.

  • Aligning current practices in TRHT by:

    1) examining its different programs and initiatives to identify ways that strengthen and align current TRHT practices, while also identifying gaps and areas of weakness.

    2) connect and collaborate across the campus and community.

  • Utilizing Circles (Peace, Story, Healing) as a way to:

    1) value and acknowledge human experience in a way that is familiar to UMBC, Baltimore, and the TRHT Enterprise

    2) continue the work as a TRHT Campus Center.

  • Supporting Youth in Action as a primary platform for TRHT to:

    1) use art and activism as a site for youth voice.

    2) provide an opportunity for community-based TRHT work that is youth-driven.

 UMBC TRHT Center Timeline of Events

July 7th 2017: Shriver Center's Choice Program applied to be a TRHT Campus Center

September 5th 2017: Initial planning meeting with Advisory Committee convened

September 28-29th 2017: UMBC delegation attended the TRHT orientation

January 20th 2018: UMBC TRHT Team attended the TRHT Institute

February-March 2018: UMBC TRHT Team met with Shriver Programs

July 18th 2018: UMBC TRHT Team attended a healing circle facilitator training

June 25th 2019: UMBC TRHT Team attended TRHT conference

September 24th 2020: Shriver Center's Choice Program hosts Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation in Our Communities Town Hall

January 19th 2021: UMBC TRHT Team hosts National Day of Racial Healing Letter Writing Campaign and Healing Circle in collaboration with Spelman College