Community & Capacity Building

“You have to build a bridge of trust strong enough to bear the weight of the truth you are trying to deliver.” –Reverend John Coleman

Photo group participants in a circle by Michael Fagans, University of Mississippi

We believe that communities grow best and make progress with a spirit of true equity and a shared understanding of history. We skillfully convene and create courageous spaces that help communities of any kind draw from the power of story and connection to move closer to a brighter future.

We developed our Community & Capacity Building process through two decades of working in Mississippi communities and beyond, first as the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation and now as The Alluvial Collective. The process was designed to bridge the divide between racial equity and racial healing through a sustained engagement following established protocols and guidelines with a consistent group of participants.

The process helps create relational trust, unity, teamwork, and cohesiveness in a group of community or organization members. It shares better ways to bridge differences and communicate with each other and, by extension, other people in their communities as a whole.

We assist partner groups to:

Understand the importance of listening, storytelling, and relationship building as prerequisites to producing real and measurable change.
Understand the consequences of the systems we have inherited, in order to develop, together, community-specific initiatives to redress inequities.
Focus on examining and changing policies, procedures, and practices to create more inclusive and equitable environments.
Become equipped with the communications tools to accomplish the goals stakeholders identify together to improve their communities.