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Transformative Systems Change

Advocacy

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Transformative systems change, locally and across Michigan, is necessary to achieve our goals.

We work with local and statewide coalitions to influence public priorities and spending.

We utilize a model for systems change founded in the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (THRT) Framework, and the scope of our policy priorities are informed by the Kalamazoo Blueprint for Peace action steps and strategies.

Each of our priorities requires strategic engagement locally, regionally or statewide, and the Michigan Transformation Collective may lead or join coalitions in collaborative efforts to address the root causes of gun violence and develop comprehensive solutions.

Our Strategic Priorities

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CVI
Funding

Increase the resources available for Community Violence Intervention and prevention by expanding Medicaid to include hospital and community-based violence intervention and violence response efforts.

Take Action
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Childcare
Wages

Increase funding for the child development and care scholarship and align funding to the cost of care, not the prevailing wage, in order to create the conditions necessary to implement free 0-3 child care in Kalamazoo’s priority neighborhoods.

Take Action
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Juvenile
Defense

Transfer the responsibility and cost of administering youth defense from Counties to the state ensuring statewide standards for defense and training of representation.

Take Action
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School
Funding

Increase K-12 school funding directed to ESL, special education and the opportunity index to meet the educational and developmental needs of each child and youth at their neighborhood school.

Take Action
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Housing
Equity

Support legislation that implements the benefits of the Kalamazoo Housing Equity Ordinance statewide in order to increase access to safe, secure and stable housing, and support legislation that enshrines the rights of tenants and unhoused people across Michigan.

Take Action

Blueprint for Peace Intersections

Increase the resources available for Community Violence Intervention and prevention by implementing a Medicaid state plan amendment to support the cost of hospital and community-based violence intervention and violence response efforts with Federal funds
  • Goal 1: Stop the shooting, stop the violence
    • Reduce incidence of violence through proactive prevention efforts
      • Strengthen capacity and alignment of local community violence intervention efforts.
    • Respond to immediate individual and community needs post incident
      • Expand support services for survivors of violence through hospital-community partnerships and social service programs.
      • Expand post-incident trauma healing support, including community events and critical incident debriefing for victims, witnesses, accused and first responders, connecting them to appropriate community supports.
  • Goal 2: Increase Access and build capacity for healing and community restoration
    • Promote healing, behavioral health and trauma reduction
      • Provide trauma reduction and healing-informed care to residents who experience primary and secondary trauma.
      • Increase coordination of mental health and trauma services across agencies to support children, youth and families who have been exposed to multiple forms of violence.
      • Provide no-cost mental health care for youth and families, especially those impacted by violence
    • Strengthen treatment and healing services for survivors of sexual and domestic violence
      • Support the formation of healthy relationships and healthy gender identity, including mobilizing men and boys to intervene as allies addressing toxic masculinity that perpetuates power and privilege. 
  • Goal 6: Strengthen Capacity and Coordination
    • Create a mechanism for sustainable violence prevention funding
      • Bring funders together to support alignment with the Blueprint’s long-term goals and strategy.
Increase funding for the child development and care scholarship and align funding to the cost of care, not the prevailing wage, in order to create the conditions necessary to implement free 0-3 child care in Kalamazoo’s priority neighborhoods.
  • Goal 3: Support children, youth and families
    • Build access to high-quality and no-cost early learning supports and facilities (daycare, preschool, etc.) in priority neighborhoods
  • Goal 4: Cultivate economic stability
    • Strengthen Economic Supports for Families
      • Provide access to resources that support stabilization in these areas: employment, housing, child care and transportation.
      • Establish and incentivize proactive policies that increase practictices of equity in wages, benefits and access to wellness supports.
Transfer the responsibility and cost of administering youth defense from Counties to the state ensuring statewide standards for defense and training of representation.
  • Goal 1: Stop the shooting, stop the violence
    • Provide intensive intervention services for youth and adults who have caused violence
  • Goal 2: Increase access and build capacity for healing and community restoration.
    • Strengthen and preserve healthy relationships
      • Strengthen restorative practices in courts, child welfare institutions, schools and community settings as a means to advance healing and repair relationships for survivors and perpetrators of violence and broader social networks.
  • Goal 6: Strengthen capacity and coordination
    • Apply healing-informed, racial equity and implicit bias reduction lenses across sectors, institutes and partners.
      • Adopt a healing-informed approach to violence prevention across sectors, institutions and partners.
Increase K-12 school funding directed to ESL, special education and the opportunity index to meet the educational and developmental needs of each child and youth at their neighborhood school
  • Goal 3: Support children, youth and families
    • Cultivate safe and inclusive school environments
    • Provide high-quality academic and social opportunities, recognizing the needs of each child and youth.
Support legislation that implements the benefits of the Kalamazoo Housing Equity Ordinance statewide in order to increase access to safe, secure and stable housing and legislation that enshrines the rights of tenants and unhoused people across Michigan.
  • Goal 4: Cultivate economic stability
    • Strengthen Economic Supports for Families
      • Provide access to resources that support stabilization in these areas: employment, housing, child care and transportation.
  • Goal 5: Foster safe and strong neighborhoods
    • Increase access to safe, stable and secure housing
    • Strengthen and examine code enforcement methods to ensure landlords are being held accountable for the condition and upkeep of their properties.
Goal 1: Stop the shooting, stop the violence
Goal 2: Increase Access and build capacity for healing and community restoration
Goal 3: Support children, youth and families
Goal 4: Cultivate economic stability
Goal 5: Foster safe and strong neighborhoods
Civil Rights
Budget
MTC Supports
View the Blueprint for Peace Report

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Racial Healing Practitioner Interest

What is Transformation?

Racial healing is at the heart of racial equity. Racial healing is about:

  • the people work that leads to the transformation of systems;
  • the telling of hard truths about past wrongs and present consequences;
  • repairing the harm of racism;
  • replacing the deeply held system that fuels racism with one that sees the inherent value of all people;
  • authentic relationship-building across real and perceived differences.

 

Without racial healing and building trust, changes in policies or practices are short-lived. Through healing and relationship-building, we can collectively develop new values that affect our everyday decisions in areas of policy making, hiring, education and housing – to name just a few.

What is Civic Health?

Racial healing is at the heart of racial equity. Racial healing is about:

  • the people work that leads to the transformation of systems;
  • the telling of hard truths about past wrongs and present consequences;
  • repairing the harm of racism;
  • replacing the deeply held system that fuels racism with one that sees the inherent value of all people;
  • authentic relationship-building across real and perceived differences.

 

Without racial healing and building trust, changes in policies or practices are short-lived. Through healing and relationship-building, we can collectively develop new values that affect our everyday decisions in areas of policy making, hiring, education and housing – to name just a few.

What is Racial Healing?

Racial healing refers to the process of addressing and repairing the harm caused by racial injustice, discrimination, and systemic oppression.

It involves acknowledging historical and present-day injustices, fostering understanding and empathy across racial divides, and promoting reconciliation, healing, and solidarity among individuals and communities.

Racial healing recognizes the deep-seated trauma and intergenerational impact of racism on individuals, families, and society as a whole, and seeks to create spaces for healing, dialogue, and transformative change.

It encompasses personal, interpersonal, and systemic dimensions, and involves both individual reflection and collective action to address the root causes of racial inequity and promote equity, justice, and belonging for all.

Racial healing is a proactive and ongoing process that requires commitment, compassion, and collaboration from individuals, communities, institutions, and society at large.