Media Contacts:
Rachel Larris, [email protected], 202-994-6460
Sarah Baldauf, [email protected], 773-456-6721
WASHINGTON —
On Wednesday, April 20th, an evening of truth-telling, a new documentary screening, and an expert panel discussion will launch Truth & Equity: Washington, DC, a Center for Community Resilience (CCR) initiative at George Washington University to address systems-driven racial inequity with community-driven solutions in the nation’s capital.
A panel of legal, public health, medical, and community engagement experts will convene to discuss the roots, and resulting multi-generational traumas, of structural racism in the District. The panel conversation is the first of a series of events and community activities designed to promote racial healing, to join others doing equity work in DC, and to build political will to foster policy and practice change that produces racial equity and community resilience.
The expert panel discussion follows a screening of the Center for Community Resilience produced documentary, America’s Truth: Cincinnati. The film details CCR’s novel adaptation of a truth and reconciliation process in the U.S. The documentary tells the story of a bitter truth faced by community members and city leaders during the CCR-led Truth & Equity initiative. Using compelling interviews with members of the Cincinnati community and historical record, the documentary provides an up close and hard-hitting understanding of how more than 600 years of policy aimed at upholding structural racism produced intentional disparities by race and place in four Black communities in Cincinnati.
As with the Truth & Equity initiative, the film offers a clear understanding of the intentional and reliable race-based outcomes produced by the centuries of policy and practice aimed at maintaining a racial hierarchy. The documentary boldly provides a vision for systems transformation and policy change to produce racial equity.
The new Truth & Equity: Washington, DC initiative is funded by the Equity Institute Initiative, a cross-disciplinary GWU project dedicated to supporting community engaged research that reduces racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic inequality in the U.S. and worldwide.
Panel Details
Moderator:
Wendy Ellis, MPH, DrPH, Director, Center for Community Resilience, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, and Executive Producer of the new CCR documentary, America’s Truth: Cincinnati
Panelists:
- Roy L. Austin, Jr., JD, Vice President of Civil Rights & Deputy General Counsel, Meta
- Jehan “Gigi” El-Bayoumi, MD, FACP, Founding Director, Rodham Institute, George Washington University
- Calvin Smith, Sr. Director of Government Relations at BridgePoint Healthcare & Former Chair, Ward 8 Health Council
- Erin Saul, Community Engagement Director, Joining Forces for Children in Cincinnati, Ohio
- Renee McPhatter, JD, Assistant Vice President for Government and Community Relations, George Washington University
When / Where:
Wednesday, April 20, 2022; 5 - 8 pm
Jack Morris Auditorium
805 21st St NW
Washington, DC 20052
Media Notes:
We ask that members of the media wishing to attend in-person contact Rachel Larris or Sarah Baldauf in advance. Registration and Event Details
Background - Truth & Equity Initiative:
According to the Center for Community Resilience, the dual effects of structural racism and COVID-19 reinforce the critical need to confront, reconcile, and heal from our nation’s legacy of racial oppression. Across sectors—including healthcare, education, housing and criminal justice—inequity in policies and practices has created disparate outcomes in the health, well-being, and economic prosperity of communities of color. The CCR Truth & Equity work uses truth-telling to spotlight the processes and systems that generate racial harm, facilitates reconciliation through community-focused racial healing, and strengthens the collective will for systems change to implement equitable policy and practice.
The April 20th Truth & Equity: Washington, DC launch event is co-sponsored by the Milken Institute School of Public Health and the GWU Equity Institute Initiative, housed at the GW Law School.