Paul Woodruff, the executive director for Prosperity Connection and VP of community development for the Saint Louis Community Credit Union, describes what it looks like to have an inclusive decision-making process, and explains the difference it makes to the organization.
David Dwight, executive director and lead strategy catalyst for Forward Through Ferguson, talks about the challenges of being a young leader in St. Louis as the region works toward racial equity.
Lindy Drew, Co-Founder and Lead Storyteller of Humans of St. Louis, says what the St. Louis region needs as it reckons with generations of racial inequity is more listening.
How do we make effective, meaningful change? Jason Purnell, associate professor at the Brown School at Washington University and director of Health Equity Works, says the top-down, old-boys’-network approach to leadership that St. Louis is used to is no longer sufficient for solving the types of problems we face today.
Bethany Johnson-Javois, CEO of the St. Louis Integrated Health Network, says that what most stands in the way of progress for St. Louis is an unwillingness to believe that we already have the people, resources and insights we need to move forward.
Nicole Hudson, assistant vice chancellor of the Academy for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Washington University in St. Louis, describes how the stories people tell themselves influence our collective ability to change, and suggests that understanding narrative is the first step toward making any real progress as a region.
What can everyday people do to support racial equity? These St. Louisans who are invested in racial equity work say everyday people can do something simple but powerful: show up.
Organizer and activist Brittany Ferrell talks about the new kind of leaders who emerged in the Ferguson uprising, and the impact of the new approach those leaders brought to the movement.
In his course, “Don’t Believe the Hype: Race, Media and Social Movements in America, 1915 to 2015,” Vernon Mitchell Jr. helps students understand the construction of racial narratives through media, and how that affects their experience in St. Louis — and the world.
Laura Horwitz, Co-Founder and Executive Director of We Stories, says that everyone talks about the conversation we need to have about race — but as long as families of color talk about race more regularly than white families, it’s difficult to have an effective conversation.