We also recognize that we are an organization with great privilege. We want to be aware of the privileges, including the power and access that comes with our identities, our zip codes, and our personal and organizational wealth. We will constantly interrogate our actions, to ensure we are pursuing equity and liberation in our structures/systems and actions. We want to help build community power and shrink disparities based on race, zip code, education, economic status, gender, sexuality, and other aspects of our complex identities. We recognize that the white savior mentality is driven by a desire to be in control. We commit to continuously evaluate our actions to ensure we are behaving with humility and listening first, rejecting the desire to be in control while honoring the leadership, innovation and strengths of our neighbors. We will reject our desire to mandate or determine the strategy, pace, timing, tone and approach of projects and initiatives led by our partners and neighbors. We will share in the imagination, creativity, power, resources, and work.

We have responsibilities to many stakeholders, including: our generous founding donor, Sue McCollum and the Epsten family; Central Reform Congregation - its members, rabbis, staff, and allies; and the communities with whom we seek to serve, support and be in relationship, with special focus on our neighbors in North St. Louis City. We are accountable to those most directly impacted by the systems we challenge and seek to dismantle.

Through our existence as a nonprofit, we commit to analyzing the power dynamics in our communities: who has it, who doesn’t, and how we build enough of it to bring about change. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., described power as “the ability to achieve purpose” and “the strength required to bring about social, political and economic change.” We understand that building community power and shifting racist systems relies on building intentional relationships and deep trust.

Moving forward does not mean a simple rearrangement of current conditions, but rather, demonstrates the elimination of injustices and equities and the introduction of freedom, dignity and love. We are grounded by the words of Dr. Angela Davis, who says that “abolition is about rebuilding, reenvisioning, reimagining, reconceptualizing...we see justice as transformative, as transforming not only individuals but transforming our societies.”

We recognize the damage and violence caused by colonization, specifically in the United States, and understand that we live amidst long-standing systems and structures based on those colonialist ideas, including racism, patriarchy, hetero normativity, Christian dominance and white supremacy. We accept the analysis that the resources and wealth that have been amassed because of these systems “have been stolen from Indigenous people, people of African descent, and many other people of color” and those exploited communities must now “apply for access to that wealth in the form of loans or grants; [they] must prove [themselves] worthy.” We also understand that these communities that have been forced to the margins, across generations, “are the very ones who harbor the best solutions for healing, progress and peace, by virtue of our outsider perspectives and resilience.”

We consider ourselves to be stewards of resources, including all financial contributions of any format made to Ashrei in support of our mission. Wealth comes in many forms, including access, literacy, information, relationship, and money. We believe that “money should be a tool of love, to facilitate relationships, to help us thrive…If it’s used for sacred, life-giving, restorative purposes, it can be medicine. Money, used as medicine, can help us decolonize.” We draw on Jewish and Indigenous worldviews, which emphasize connection and reciprocity. “In order for us to decolonize wealth, at least half of the people who make the decisions about where money goes - at least 50% of staff, 50% of advisors, 50% of board members - should have intimate, authentic knowledge of the issues and communities involved. This means that some of the usual suspects, the white saviors, will have to give up their seats…When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”

Building relationships, healing communities, and the work of abolishing systemic racism takes time. We are committed to moving at the speed of trust. We recognize four key elements necessary to build healthy relationships: space for authenticity, building trust, navigating difference and power, and shared purpose. Building trust is about adaptation, flexibility, humility and fun! “It is more about holding space for others’ brilliance than being the sole source of answers.” We know that social change grows out of people understanding themselves to be interdependent, sharing common needs, goals and interests. We affirm that “transformational change will always require challenging conversations about ‘us’ - not a monologue about helping ‘them.’”

We believe the work can be done most effectively when we build community. We will intentionally build community by making time to get to know one another. We will care about the whole person, not just their role in contributing to the work and labor. We will welcome children and other family members in our spaces, conversations, ideas, and events. We will be thoughtful and inclusive of the diverse cultural, social and religious traditions in our region and will ensure our efforts don’t deny our partners’ ability to fully engage in these traditions. We will strive to ensure that our meetings, events, and communications are accessible to people with disabilities. We will be thoughtful about gender identities and respect people’s pronouns.

Fundamental to building relationships is our practice of listening first. Drawing on the work of Edgar Villanueva, we recognize that, “good listening includes being:

• open, not to predetermining the appropriate content of communications;

• empathetic, truly inviting in and making space for the feelings and wisdom of the speaker; and

• holistic, including what is said in ways that do not use words.

Listening attentively means holding back your own conclusions, opinions and judgements. You do not need to jump in and say, ‘Me too!’ This just moves the focus away from the other person and back to yourself. Give [the speaker] room to breathe and take risks in conversation. No monologues and no mansplaining. Replace advice with openness and curiosity.”

We will take risks, in funding, in programming, in partnerships, in relationships, in naming truths and rejecting injustice. We are committed to having, inviting and facilitating courageous conversations. We see that there is often a disconnect in what grassroots, community-led initiatives and movements require, and what funders will provide, in resources and support. We are committed to existing in that gap: funding where others choose not to, building trust where others are afraid, and partnering where others have abandoned. We will value human connection over the measurable results of our efforts or the efforts we support. The relationships we build and facilitate will be our greatest asset. We are committed to supporting the success of our neighbors and recognize that our own success will be measured and bound to the success of others.