Our Work

Mission:

The Institute for Democratic Renewal/Project Change (IDR/PC) strives to combat injustice in the United States through a variety of training centers, projects, convenings, presentations and technology initiatives. Our primary goal is to assist communities who are experiencing structural exclusion to participate more fully in the democratic process.

A National Network:

Capitalizing on our years of experience in working with communities combating racism, the Institute for Democratic Renewal/Project Change (IDR/PC) has increasingly become a technical assistance provider to efforts seeking to transform local and regional policies and practices. Projects increasingly seek the technical assistance that IDR/PC can broker and provide.

Since 2001 more than 1000 people have been trained in antiracist community-building sites initiated by IDR/PC. Because the impact of our work is amplified when Network sites are pursuing the same issue at the same time, IDR / PC and sites will focus on institutionalized racism and educational equity. Our experience demonstrates that confronting institutional and structural racism in schools with race-conscious, race sensitive approaches is the only way to ameliorate inequities and narrow the educational achievement gap.

Collaborations for Change: Development of a “Next Generation” Training:

IDR / PC in collaboration with local community partners — people working to bring an appreciation and understanding of the powerful connection between spirituality and activism — is embarking on the development of a “next generation” training for dismantling racism and transforming communities consisting of three parts:

• Visioning the kind of world we want to realize, reflecting the ideal of Beloved Community
• Developing a racial analysis to serve as a tool for institutional and social restructuring
• Focusing on “How do we get from here to there?” utilizing transformational leadership behaviors and practices.

The Beloved Community Initiative: Linking Communities that Fuse Spirituality with Justice

Growing out of the vision of Martin Luther King Jr., this initiative was begun in 2004 to identify, explore and form a network of communities committed to and practicing the profound pursuit of justice, radical inclusivity, democratic governance, and social/individual transformation.

By using the phrase popularized by Martin Luther King Jr. and the southern Freedom Movement, IDR/PC seeks to make clear that Beloved Community points toward inclusiveness, cooperation and compassion, and has worldwide, international dimensions that Dr. King’s own thinking, particularly toward the end of his life (1965-68), embraced. A steering committee guides the work of this initiative. The initiative is unfolding in three stages:

• Creating a 21st century vision of Beloved Community building on the work of Martin Luther King Jr. and others
• Distilling useful lessons from organizations and projects exemplifying Beloved Community in order to help deepen understanding and foster its development
• Building toward a global movement based of Beloved Community ideals