The Umuwi Ethnic Studies Racial Healing & Resourcing Cohort supports BIPOC educators through healing-centered professional development. This experience centers individual and collective racial healing and resourcing as necessary practices in order to sustain our commitments to practicing healing, justice, and liberation in our classrooms, schools, and learning spaces.
Take a look at a recap of our 2025 cohort’s final session, centered around Making Home in Ourselves & Each Other. We gathered in opening and closing circles, shared our toolkits in homeplace groups, and were guided through an introduction to Capoeira Angola.
“In this moment, the call for healing justice is clear and urgent. Our movements are eager for tools, strategies, and practices to address trauma and violence that can keep us steady in our fight for liberation. We have been waiting for this moment. For years we have challenged our movements to move toward healing justice while watching our beloved barrel toward environmental, physical, emotional, psychic and spiritual crisis. These crises are not of our making, yet we have a responsibility and the skills to intervene.”
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We are living through a polycrisis - a time of multiple, overlapping, and interconnected crises causing seismic social, political, economic, environmental, and technological shifts. These crises include the aftermath of the COVID pandemic and other health crises, widening economic inequality, climate destabilization, and accelerating attacks on human and civil rights, racial and social justice, and public services, including public education, and more. BIPOC and multiply marginalized communities are at the frontlines and faultlines of these conditions, and the impacts have been devastating for young BIPOC people and for the educators who are responsible for providing them with daily love and care, despite working within institutions that are often love-deficient. Yet, as a society, we have not allowed educators the space to grieve, to restore, and to evolve to be more responsive to the needs of young people living through these overlapping crises. We are called to create this cohort experience in the spirit of love, care and solidarity with BIPOC educators, and in recognition that everyone's well-being is interdependent. Self-care is wholly inadequate in these times.
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Cohort members are asked to make a good faith effort to attend a series of 4 virtual sessions and 1 in-person culminating session, centered on the following:
We will build understanding in each session about the root causes and impacts of racialized violence and why racial healing and resourcing is necessary for our survival and sustenance.
We will engage participants in healing practices of various modalities, including: embodied practices, breathwork, guided journaling, healing-based storytelling, and structural witnessing.
Participants will set intentions and plans for their healing and resourcing practices, and engage in peer support to move toward actualizing their intentions and plans.
We will engage healing-centered frameworks and practices that educators can incorporate into their work with young people.
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Priority will be given to people who meet the following criteria:
Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC)
People who aspire to be justice-centered* practitioners
People who are committed to investing in their healing and resourcing practices and who are open to learning/unlearning
People who are committed to co-creating an accountable community of care, belonging, healing and love
Practitioners working in/adjacent to K-12 schools and youth-serving spaces
Practitioners who live and work in Cook County (Chicago Area)
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Q: I work and live outside of Cook County, can I still apply for the cohort experience?
A: Although we will be prioritizing applicants from Cook County, given our primary funding source focuses on Cook County, we are open to the possibility of including candidates from outside of the county if candidates align with our broader set of selection considerations (highlighted in the application) and capacity allows. So, you are welcome to apply, and we will thoughtfully and holistically consider your application.
Q: I participated in the cohort experience last year. Can I apply to participate again?
A: We are open to past cohort members participating in the cohort again, and we are honored that you are interested in continuing to engage with our offerings. As you consider reapplying, please know that the curriculum will be very similar to last year's program (for example, the presenters that joined us last year are partnering with us again this year). Also if we have more applicants who meet all the criteria than we have available slots, we would need to prioritize folks who haven't had the experience.
Q: I am not a practitioner working in or adjacent to K-12 schools and youth-serving space. Can I apply?
A. We are prioritizing practitioners currently working in or adjacent to K-12 schools and youth-serving spaces; however, we will thoughtfully and holistically review and consider each applicant. If you are not a practitioner working in/adjacent to K-12 schools or youth-serving spaces, please describe how your work does impact these areas in your application.
Q: I am a pre-service teacher. Would my application be considered?
A: We are prioritizing practitioners currently working in or adjacent to K-12 schools and youth-serving spaces; however, we believe this experience would be beneficial to pre-service teachers, and we will thoughtfully and holistically review and consider your application. In your application, please share information about where you are in the process of becoming a teacher, including any teacher education programs you are participating (or have participated) in.
Q: How many people will be selected for this cohort experience?
A: We will select a maximum of 20 participants for the 2025 Racial Healing and Resourcing cohort experience.
Check out what our 2025 Cohort Members had to say about their experience in this video!
“This cohort was a life-giving experience in a spring of a very weary school year. The time to consider my own wellness/unwellness in community with others who are also on this healing journey was invaluable. While I know there’s still more healing work I need to do, I’m thankful for the resources and community that this cohort brought to me.”
“Building my healing toolkit has changed the way I view healing - being able to gather resources that work best for me allowed me to show up for myself in a way I never thought I could. It is amazing being able to sit down and reflect on what I need in moments of extreme (un)wellness.”
“This cohort provided a thoughtful and intentional pathway to connect educators that are focused on racial healing and resourcing to one another for support & witnessing. The experience was filled with many critical lessons and opportunities for educators to grow and heal while creating personalized toolkits that make sense for our individuals lives. Umuwi is a gift to educators committed to healing in Illinois.”