Ideas for Reconciliation

The following are ways that individuals and groups can actively engage the reconciliation process:


Colleges/Universities


  1. Sponsor a “Staff/Faculty Plunge” and have staff and faculty live on the streets for two nights.
  2. Have workshops and camps that are open to the community on campus for free.
  3. Sponsor a “Reverse Plunge” and have homeless people come to campus and stay in tents.
  4. Have a soup kitchen and feed those in need on campus.
  5. Offer services writing, designing, or mentoring to community members and non-profits pro-bono.
  6. Hold workshops for community members and non-profits.
  7. Have students, staff and faculty serve lunch at a soup kitchen.
  8. Sponsor a carwash with an organization in a diverse neighborhood.
  9. Host a culture awareness week on campus. Celebrate a different culture everyday. Eat their food and learn a tradition through dress, books, music, the arts, etc.

Church


  1. Organize an interracial sports league through your local church to promote racial reconciliation among kids.
  2. Sponsor a racial reconciliation rally with churches of different ethnicities in observance of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s Holiday.
  3. Organize a multi-ethnic prayer night involving churches in your community.
  4. Join a multiracial church that is committed to social justice.
  5. Commit to transporting at least one international student from your local college/university to your church for services.

Community


  1. Vote for political candidates that support economic justice and racial righteousness.
  2. Build a home with others who stand for justice through Habitat for Humanity.
  3. Tutor ESL (English as a Second Language) students in English.
  4. Donate money to the librarian of your local school to purchase books that encourage racial and ethnic sensitivity and awareness.
  5. Encourage your local school board to supply racial reconciliation curriculum, resources and training to classroom teachers and administrators in your district.
  6. Support a major initiative that concerns people of a different ethnic group in your local community.
  7. Host a diversity dinner or backyard barbecue for people from different racial groups in your neighborhood to get to know each other.

Missions/Outreach


  1. Volunteer to serve and use your skills/expertise (legal, accounting, cosmetology, carpentry, etc.) in a non-profit organization that promotes racial equality.
  2. Give financial support to a ministry dedicated to racial justice and ethnic diversity.
  3. Invite international students from a local college or university to share their culture with you and your family during a holiday.
  4. Volunteer in an urban ministry and submit to and learn from indigenous leaders in the community.
  5. Serve in a short-term mission project under indigenous leadership in another country.
  6. Learn about and support cottage industry employment efforts in other countries such as The Heifer Project.

Personal


  1. Advocate for policies that hire, promote and support people from different racial and ethnic groups on your job.
  2. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper to protest an issue of racial injustice or inequality in your community.
  3. Serve as a foster parent for children of different ethnicities.
  4. Start a racial reconciliation reading and discussion group.
  5. Sponsor a racial reconciliation film viewing and discussion group.
  6. Learn about and celebrate holidays of people from other ethnicities.