What to Expect

The Healing Art Circle provides a supportive space to process emotions about current events and racial suffering through creative expression. Using an adapted Healing Circle format combined with art-making, participants explore their feelings in a safe, judgment-free environment.

Healing Circles Help Us:

Step out of ordinary time into a safe and accepting environment. We listen with compassion and curiosity, honor each other's unique paths to healing, and trust that each person has the guidance they need within them. We rely on the power of silence to access our inner wisdom.

Core Practices:

• Listening with attention: Being fully present for others' experiences

• Speaking with intention: Sharing authentically from the heart

• Tending to the well-being of the circle: Supporting collective healing

What You'll Need:

• Any materials or writing and art supplies you have available

• Any medium you choose (poetry, music, watercolors, collage, pen and paper, digital art, dance, etc.)

• No art experience necessary—all forms of creative expression are welcome

Past participants have created diverse forms of expression including poetry, music, watercolors, collage, paper and pen drawings, digital art, and dance. The focus is on the healing process, not artistic skill.

National Native American Heritage Month
Domincan Sisters of Houston
&
Center for Healing of Racism
Presents

The American Indian Genocide Museum

Need Help Right Now?

Hotline (English):
877-659-4304

Hotline (Español):
877-355-1461

Text Helpline:
512-872-5656

"When you travel, you learn the most about your own country. No matter how divided we think we are, there is much more we have in common."

— David McCullough III, Co-Founder and CEO

Core Principles:

• Strictly Nonpartisan: Tools and opportunities for all women regardless of party affiliation

• Inclusive: Special focus on underserved women, women of color, and young women

• Collaborative: "All in together" means partnering across sectors and organizations

• Action-Oriented: Moving beyond awareness to tangible civic participation

• Sustainable: Building lifelong commitment to democracy beyond election cycles

What makes AIT different:

• Only national nonpartisan organization focused exclusively on women's civic engagement

• Combines education, training, research, and media to create systemic change

• Reaches millions through media while training thousands on the ground

• Addresses gender-based violence survivors and marginalized communities

• Led by women with deep expertise in both civic life and business leadership

Who is having the hardest time:

• Families making less than $25,000 per year

• Only 1 in 3 low-income families say they have fully recovered

• People who couldn't afford to make all the repairs they needed

• Families who lost food, wages, and had to pay for emergency costs

Compare this to higher-income families:

• 8 out of 10 families making over $100,000 say they have fully recovered

• They were more likely to have savings to pay for repairs

• They were more likely to have insurance that covered damage

"This book gives you clear, simple ways to understand how we became so divided. The authors share their own stories about changing their minds and learning from others. Then they give you exercises to try yourself. Use this book with family, friends, neighbors, or anyone you want to understand better."

— Susan Clark, coauthor of Slow Democracy

Dialogue and Bridging Workshops

Learn proven, science-based skills to navigate differences, build trust across divides, and solve problems together. From self-paced online courses to intensive facilitation training, these programs equip you with tools to bridge political, cultural, and ideological divides.

Three leading organizations offer workshops and training at every level—from 5-minute practices to multi-month fellowships.

The Democracy & Belonging Forum’s Network Catalyzers Program supports selected Forum members in launching and growing their own virtual or in-person communities related to othering, belonging, bridging, and democracy. 

These communities are entirely member-run, but are in part resourced, promoted, and supported by the Forum. In 2025, six communities (and seven catalyzers) were selected to participate, addressing topics as diverse as bridging in rural France, food insecurity in Texas, and intergenerational engagement among immigrant families. 

Two-Day Interactive Workshop

Join us for our signature workshop in a safe, respectful, and loving atmosphere where individuals will learn new information, share their experiences, dispel fear and guilt, and get to know each other.

Restorative Justice Apprenticeship: Circle Keeping for Community Building

Learn the ancient practice of circle keeping to build stronger communities, facilitate healing conversations, and create spaces where everyone belongs.

📅Spring 2026

How to Make Your Voice Heard

• Find Your Representatives: Visit Texas Legislature Online to find who represents you

• Email the Bill Sponsors: Use the sponsor emails in each issue below to share your experience

• Contact Your Local Officials: Reach out to your state senator and representative about what matters to you

• Share This Article: Help others learn about the issues that quietly shape our lives

• Focus on Your Experience: Personal stories about how these issues affect your family, business, or community are powerful

Why This Matters

• The loudest political fights are about identity and culture

• Polling shows Texans already agree on practical issues like energy and healthcare

• These "boring" problems are where surprising alliances form

• Boring issues are where trust can be rebuilt across political divides

• This is where politics can actually make everyday life better

This groundbreaking event returns to Houston Community College for the first time since 2020, inviting you to experience the world through someone else's eyes using the power of virtual reality.

Join HCC Central for a special VR for Empathy event on Saturday, November 15. This groundbreaking initiative was first held at HCC in 2019, followed by a larger, more impactful edition in 2020, and now returns with fresh perspectives on how immersive technology can help us understand one another more deeply.

A German thinker named Friedrich Nietzsche had a word for this feeling: "nihilism" (say: NYE-ill-ism). It means believing nothing really matters. But this feeling is now so common among young Americans that experts call it "cultural nihilism."

Warning Signs

• Fewer young people trust democracy than ever before

• Young people don't trust big institutions like government

• Entire online groups are built around being super negative

• Young people have stopped believing things can get better

"More than ever, people and organizations need space to come together to discuss, imagine, and chart a path to a more just world. We hope the center helps to fulfill this need."

— Ford Foundation