Trellis Foundation Summit

In partnership with Alamo Colleges, we hope to support higher levels of student success and engagement by the sharing of personal narratives, building relationships, and engaging in healing activities — all leading to institutional and community transformation for more just and equitable environments. — Tia Brown McNair, Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success Executive Director for TRHT Campus Centers

• Purpose: TRHT Campus Centers serve to prepare the next generation of strategic leaders and thinkers to build just and equitable communities and to promote transformational and sustainable change. In partnership with Alamo Colleges District (ACD), AAC&U is developing Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers to address the historic and contemporary effects of systemic and structural racism on college campuses. The TRHT Center at Austin Community College (ACC) is serving as a mentor to the Alamo Colleges District as they develop Centers on each of their campuses. Seeking to help communities embrace racial healing and eliminate conscious and unconscious beliefs in a hierarchy of human value, TRHT Campus Centers are tasked with developing and implementing a visionary plan to engage and empower campus and community stakeholders. The efforts of TRHT Campus Centers are guided by the five pillars of the TRHT Framework: narrative change, racial healing and relationship building, separation, law, and economy (see figure below).
• Constituencies Served: Campus leaders including presidents, administrators, faculty, staff, and community partners
• Grant Activities: Attend AAC&U’s Virtual Institute on TRHT Campus Centers to develop action plans that align with existing diversity, equity, and inclusion goals and strategic prioritize for student success; participate in a preparation process to learn how to facilitate Rx Racial Healing CirclesTM; attend workshops led by existing TRHT campus leaders; collaborate with experienced TRHT Campus Center mentors; develop evaluation and assessment plans with the national evaluator for the TRHT Campus Centers
• Resources and Readings
  • Framework: The efforts of TRHT Campus Centers are guided by the five pillars of the TRHT Framework: narrative change, racial healing and relationship building, separation, law, and economy. More information about the TRHT Framework can be found here Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (healourcommunities.org)
  • Guide: TRHT Racial Healing Circles offers people, organizations and communities the opportunity to take collective action for a more just and equitable world through dialogue. You can learn more about Racial Healing Circles here Microsoft Word – NDORH_ConversationGuide_2019_V6_12-10-18 FINAL_proofed.docx (d38xzozy36dxrv.cloudfront.net) Alamo’s National Day of Racial Healing event on January 28, 2022 introduced the Alamo Colleges community to their plans for racial healing activities across all 5 Colleges and the District Support Offices. Racial Healing Circle facilitator Mee Moua and Alamo’s Chief DEI Officer, Dr. Eric Castillo, discussed the practice of racial healing circles and how they can impact our relationships with each other. Chancellor Flores and President Robert Vela gave welcome remarks, and there was also a special performance by San Antonio poet laureate Andrea Vocab Sanderson.
  • Guide: Gail C. Christopher’s Rx Racial Healing: A Guide to Embracing Our Humanity provides individuals an overview of the methodology, tools, and resources to facilitate and engage in the Rx Racial Healing approach for transformational change in colleges, organizations, and communities. Read the excerpt and explore the table of contents here Rx Racial Healing: A Guide to Embracing Our Humanity | AAC&U (aacu.org)
• Website: Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers: Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers | AAC&U (aacu.org)
• Partners:
  • Alamo Colleges District
  • Austin Community College
• Contact: Tia Brown McNair, Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success & Executive Director of TRHT Campus Centers, at McNair@aacu.org.