Dismantling Racism: A Youth Curriculum - Leader Guide

Leader Guide

Katie McRee and Sally Ulrey, Foreword by Catherine Meeks

Jul/2020, 198 Pages, PAPER, 8.5 x 11

ISBN-13: 9781640655232

Learn More

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).

KATIE McCREE served as Youth Minister at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Roswell, Georgia for over a decade, and has been a consultant for Ministry Architects. She has also written curricular material for the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. Katie was first inspired by youth ministry through her own youth minister in Central Florida, who mentored and encouraged her to seek out ministry as a career. She attended the University of Florida where she earned a degree in family, youth, and community sciences. She lives in Woodstock, Georgia

SALLY ULREY serves as Canon for Congregational Vitality and Ministry Development on the Bishop’s Staff in the Diocese of Atlanta, where she’s served in the Office of Congregational Vitality since 2018.  Prior to joining the Bishop’s staff, Sally spent almost 20 years working in parishes in the Diocese of Atlanta in Christian formation, including youth and children's ministry, using her formal education in Bible, Theology, and Christian Education in those roles. She has served as a consultant and trainer throughout the Episcopal Church in both formation ministries and in congregational development.  Sally coauthored the Dismantling Racism Youth Curriculum with Katie McRee, in collaboration with the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing. She lives in Oxford, Georgia.

You May Also Like

Dismantling Racism: A Youth Curriculum - Student Journal

Katie McRee and Sally Ulrey, Foreword by Catherine Meeks $7.95

These Are Our Bodies, Foundation Book

Leslie Choplin, Jenny Beaumont$32.95

Seeing the Unseen

Mark M. Beckwith$19.95

A Life of Grace for the Whole World, Leader's Guide

Jerry Cappel, Stephanie McDyre Johnson$34.95

Belovedness

James Franklin, Becky Zartman$20.95

Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around

Therese Taylor-Stinson$27.95

Your Faith, Your Life

Jenifer Gamber, Bill Lewellis$25.95

Preaching Black Lives (Matter)

Gayle Fisher-Stewart$27.95