QCUR - Quaker Coalition for Uprooting Racism

The Quaker Coalition for Uprooting Racism is a coalition of six Quaker organizations and Friends who are working together to accelerate the movement for, and capacity to create, racial justice among (and beyond) Friends through the creation of the Quakers Uprooting Racism community of practice program– racial justice changemakers learning and experimenting with actions together.​

The QCUR Steering Committee—made up of representatives of the below organizations and Friends—
oversees the care of the Quakers Uprooting Racism community of practice program.

QCUR Newsletter

Facilitators
"Friends Council has long offered anti-racism programming for Friends School educators and Quaker schools have made a deep commitment to equity, justice and belonging,” says Friends Council Associate Director Deborra Sines Pancoe. “We enthusiastically embrace this opportunity to engage and partner with Quakers across the country to move this work forward."
Theory of Change:

We see ourselves as a seed reflecting the Quaker community that is not yet, a thriving beloved, and loving community that feels like freedom, where our differences are affirmed rather than eradicated. We understand that it is through circles of influence that this growth and transformation can manifest in community. This expansion is dependent on the interconnected relationships within the Religious Society of Friends and beyond.

Our theory of change is built on these assumptions and suggests: 

If…

  • We bring together a group of racial justice co-conspirators to deepen relationships, teach and learn skills together, and co-activate systems interventions; and
  • We center the voices on the margins of the Religious Society of Friends recognizing they often hold the deepest vision for Quaker community, including Friends schools, (e.g. BIPOC Friends, young Friends, queer Friends, those who are affiliated with Quaker communities but not members); 

Then… we can move the Religious Society of Friends and Friends schools forward in becoming a fully transforming, co-creative community which understands that dismantling white supremacy and creating beloved community is an elemental aspect of our faith.

Quakers Uprooting Racism Program

This 9-month hybrid program seeks to be Spirit-led, made up of a wide representation of the Friends schools and Quaker community, co-creative and focused on developing skills, knowledge and experiences to aid in the dismantling of white supremacy within the Religious Society of Friends and beyond. 

The through the 9-month Quaker Uprooting Racism Program the community actively practices…​

  • Building trusting relationships with one another; ​
  • Collectively naming and developing strategies to dismantle white supremacy and foster root level change (meaningful rather than performative change); ​
  • Skill-building toward change strategies and experimenting with them, bringing learnings from those actions back to the group.​