Close up of holding hands.

Dialogue for Truth, Reckoning, & Repair

Drawing on truth and reconciliation frameworks, we facilitate and support local community members to use storytelling, truthful dialogue, and deliberation to acknowledge aspects of our shared painful history, implement meaningful repair strategies, and restore community connections. 

“The function of freedom is to free someone else.” —Toni Morrison 

Dialogue for Truth, Reckoning & Repair creates experiences where community members connect, investigate, and reckon with truthful history, and repair unresolved aspects of our shared painful history together.  

OUR APPROACH

Dialogue for Truth, Reckoning & Repair creates experiences where community members connect, investigate, and reckon with truthful history, and repair unresolved aspects of our shared painful history together.  

The truth will set you free, if you reckon with it. We connect neighbors with other community members who have experienced or documented local history, and we coach them to dialogue about their experiences, investigate records, identify perspectives, and interpret sources. 

Accountability invites us into our dignity. In this phase we support community members to witness their recovered history together and acknowledge its impact today. We train and coach community leaders to design an inclusive public process for apology, accountability and healing. 

Repair is the pathway to healing. Once the community has witnessed their collective history, we guide residents as they hold restorative dialogues to plan meaningful repair. We coach neighbors as they weigh their options, decide together, and turn their plans into sustainable action steps. 

Want to bring Dialogue for Truth, Reckoning, and Repair to your community? Contact Keisha McKenzie at kmckenzie@everyday-democracy.org.