[Note: By request, the "report" link just below now goes to a version that contains the Intercultural Development Inventory  as well.]

The Board of Trustees will hold a session on May 19 between services to briefly summarize findings and recommendations from the report provided by the Board-commissioned Anti-Racism Discernment Team and will ask those attending to share what actions resonate most with them.

In 2021 the Board of Trustees began asking itself and the congregation the question, “What type of anti-racist community can we be? And how do we become one?” In 2022 UUC adopted the 8th Principle, “We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”

To move UUC forward, the Board identified a priority action of calling for an assessment of where the church currently sits as a community with anti-racism and sought recommendations on how our church could move forward.

The Board appointed Rebecca DiNino and Michael Kasprzak to recruit and co-lead a guiding team tasked with exploring how to further our antiracism efforts at UUC, and the Board engaged the services of Kaleidoscope Institute (KI) for professional training and support of these efforts. 

In the fall of 2022, KI associates trained 17 congregants and staff, including members of what became the Anti-Racism Discernment Team (ARDT): Heather Ferguson, Brooke Lather-McElligott, Roberta Ray, Meta Thayer, Mike and Rebecca. All those who participated took the Intercultural Development Inventory to discern where we were along a continuum of intercultural competence and understanding. 

To gain insight into our current culture, the team members met with small groups, held open sessions and provided congregants with an online survey, engaging with more than 100 congregants and hearing an array of thoughts, hopes and fears.

They asked all participants: 

• What gives you a sense of belonging to this church?
• What are some of the traits and actions we might see in an antiracist church?
• What are your fears for yourself and the congregation in this antiracism journey that we are
• undertaking?
• Having listened to everyone else in the group share, what do you want to make sure we take away from this conversation?

In their report, the team included a summary of what they heard from congregants in answer to each question. The report includes points about the Intercultural Development Continuum, highlighting the strengths, challenges, and growth areas present at various stages of cultural understanding and change. 

The ARDT report to the Board offers specific recommendations to help move the church forward with anti-racism work. 

1. Incorporate Beloved Community and antiracism into future Mission and Vision Statements and all strategic planning documents.
2. Share the ARDT report with candidates for the Interim and Senior Minister positions (which was done). 
3. Reconstitute and call on a new visionary, creative team committed to engage the whole congregation to help implement the recommendations. 
4. Institutionalize an ongoing financial commitment to antiracist work. 
5. Develop policies for implementing antiracism efforts in staff recruitment and retention.
6. Create a working committee to discern ways that UUC might steward its physical space and other assets within the framework of an antiracist, Beloved Community.
7. Provide antiracism training for staff and members of the Board of Trustees annually - for example - Co-creating Diversity, Inclusion and Equity in our Congregations 
8. Instruct the interim or Senior Minister to find ways with staff to infuse an antiracism perspective into their work.
9. Foster creation of a “right relationship” team to help address hurt or harm when done, in word and/or deed, by and to members of, and visitors to, our Beloved Community.

The Board session May 19 will invite those attending to share what recommendations would be highest priority for them and which ones spark their energy.