We must reimagine how public policy can respond to inequity beyond our existing systems. Our current mental health, education, and workforce development systems, among others, are steeped in historical and structural racism. Healing-centered liberation policy thinks beyond what is and demands what should be. It requires new decision-making structures, acknowledges failed and abandoned policies, and recognizes both historical harms and ongoing discrimination.
Youth Policy Director Kisha Bird reflects on the moment, the movement, and the reckoning that is currently transforming our conversations, our relationships, our communities, our nation, and our world.
As a nation, we have underinvested in the health and wellbeing of Black communities, while we’ve overinvested in systems that enact violence on these communities. To protect Black lives and heal Black communities, we must divest from the police and invest in Black communities.