Please note: You MUST be trained to purchase this curriculum. Request a training here
The Episcopal Church has made a commitment of dismantling racism and building up the Beloved Community since the 1990s. In the early 2000s, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church mandated anti-racism training for all church leaders.
Rooted in faith, the Diocese of Atlanta developed a Christian formation program specifically for youth (grades 6-12). Dismantling Racism: A Youth Curriculum is a 6-session curriculum will help Middle School and High School youth have conversations about race, become allies, and build relationships to address systemic racism in their context. The goal is to help youth connect their faith with racial healing in our communities.
The Leader Guide includes full lesson plans with rich content, experiential learning, and reproducible handouts; access to downloadable videos created by the Diocese of Atlanta; liturgies and prayers; and parent/guardian letters to send out after each of the six sessions, plus content for a parent meeting.
Lesson 1: Introduction and Covenant
Lesson 2: God, the Artist
Lesson 3: The History of Racism in America: How We Got Here
Lesson 4: White Privilege
Lesson 5: Internalized Oppression
Lesson 6: Repentance, Healing, and Reconciliation
Each session is approximately 90 minutes long; the program can be offered as a six-week study, three-day weekend retreat, or in covenant groups over the course of two or three weekends.
Lesson 1: Introduction and Covenant
Create an agreement on how the group will relate to God, each other, and ourselves in discussing the subject of racism, learning the stories of those who have already started to dismantle the effects of racism in their own lives.
Lesson 2: God, The Artist
Witness the beautiful diversity of all of God’s creation, including all of humanity, and recognize that every people, race, language, culture, and ethnicity on earth bears God’s image and reveals something wonderful about who God is.
Lesson 3: The History of Racism in America: How We Got Here
The deep roots of systemic racism throughout the United States’ history are brought to light in order to truly understand the pain of racism that continues today as well as what is needed to dismantle it.
Lesson 4: White Privilege
Racist systems give advantages to certain groups (and disadvantages to others). How do we respond when we find ourselves in a place of privilege?
Lesson 5: Internalized Oppression
Racism negatively affects disadvantaged groups and their understanding of their own identity. Choosing God’s understanding of what makes people valuable helps us recognize how we are part of the healing and dismantling of racism in our community.
Lesson 6: Repentance, Healing, and Reconciliation
Even though we didn’t create racism, we have a responsibility to dismantle it. Learning from the example of the prophets, we can start to turn toward each other through naming racism in all its forms as sin, and resolving to turn away from it (through confession and repentance).
