More than 100 residents, community leaders, and practitioners gathered January 20 at the Genesee County Building for Healing Together: Our Shared Future in Flint & Genesee County, a breakfast program honoring the National Day of Racial Healing and advancing local efforts toward racial equity.
The event marked the first National Day of Racial Healing observance in Genesee County and the 10th anniversary of the national day. It was presented by the Community Foundation of Greater Flint (CFGF), the Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Fund, the Genesee County Board of Commissioners, and the Genesee County Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commission.
“We’re in this space today because bringing people together essential to addressing the important issues facing our community,” said Dan Kildee, President and CEO of CFGF. “This day is about sharing wisdom, listening to one another, and moving forward together, not by erasing our differences, but by acknowledging them and committing to healing.”
The National Day of Racial Healing is hosted annually by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and builds on the work of Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation community partners nationwide. Observed each year on the Tuesday following Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the day centers racial healing as essential to achieving lasting racial equity.
For CFGF, the gathering reflected its ongoing Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation efforts, which focus on community-led approaches to confronting racism while creating space for dialogue, relationship-building, and collective action. That focus was evident throughout the morning as participants moved between guided conversations, reflection, and creative expression.
The strong turnout resonated with staff and facilitators alike. Lynn Williams, CFGF Director of Equity and Community Engagement, said seeing so many people engage in the work of racial healing might spark more conversations.
“The turnout has given me a great deal of inspiration and hope to see so many willing to engage in fellowship to identify our shared threads of humanity in order to create the Beloved Community,” Williams said.
Elizabeth Jordan, who served as emcee and is a Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Practitioner and Senior Program Officer at the Ruth Mott Foundation, encouraged participants to confront the belief systems that allow inequity to persist.
“There is a lie out there that some people are more human than others,” Jordan said. “TRHT cuts at that foundational lie. We will reject that lie and create the beloved community that we all deserve to be a part of.”
The program blended conversation with creativity. A youth Flint Cultural Center Percussion Class, led by instructor Jessica McCormack, performed on drums and marimbas, bringing rhythm and energy to the morning. David Luke and Thomas Hutchison offered Land and Labor Acknowledgements, with Luke also naming the “valid concerns” often raised about land acknowledgements.
Participants were guided through a mindfulness moment by Canisha Norris and Elizabeth Wise. Later, Regina Laurie, Kristin Pollard, and Sarah Sullivan shared Embracing Beloved Community, reflecting on their experiences from a trip to Selma, Alabama, and inviting the audience into a collective vocal performance of “We Are the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For.”
Patrick McNeal then led table discussions focused on how the principles of Beloved Community can be practiced locally, prompting conversations about planting seeds of healing within organizations, neighborhoods, and everyday interactions.
The event concluded with a live poetic reflection by Brittni Ward, also known as Eye N Eye™ the Storyteller. A Detroit-based poet, visual artist, and cultural strategist, Ward composed what she described as a “living poem” in real time, shaped by the conversations and collective presence in the room.
On her website, Ward explained that the piece emerged through attentive listening and shared intention. “I was tasked with composing in real time, listening for the spirit of the room and shaping language that reflected the themes of racial healing, justice, and shared responsibility,” she wrote, describing the poem as “a poetic set of meeting minutes” that honored why the community had gathered. View the poem here.
Organizers described Healing Together as both a milestone and a foundation for continued work. As the Community Foundation of Greater Flint advances its Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation efforts, the event served as an invitation for residents across Flint and Genesee County to remain engaged in the long-term work of building trust, strengthening relationships, and moving racial healing forward together.
View the full photo album by Jessica Hatter Photography here.
