The Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC) Police Academy recently participated in a cultural awareness experience that’s the first of its kind in the state with the support of the Kalamazoo Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) site.

TRHT is a comprehensive, national and community-based process developed by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to plan for and bring about transformational and sustainable change, and to address the historic and contemporary effects of racism. Kalamazoo is one of four TRHT sites in Michigan.

The pilot, Expanding Our Horizons: A Cultural Awareness Experience, was developed by retired police officer Stacey Ledbetter, who now serves as the lead for the TRHT Kalamazoo Law Design Team.

“I created and implemented a unique training engagement for new officers and community members in 2015 - focused primarily on bridging the gap between law enforcement and communities of color, prior to my retirement in 2017 as a public safety captain in Kalamazoo,” Ledbetter said. “I suggested that we try this initiative at our local police academy, for cadets - who upon graduation - will be certified by the state of Michigan to become police officers.”

During the experience, police cadets engaged in CMF-sponsored TRHT racial healing circles with community members. Following the circles, everyone engaged in a facilitated training where they examined historical events, laws and policies from an equity lens.

“I describe myself as ‘Black and Blue.’ I am a Black woman, mother and wife and the Blue represents my 25-plus years in law enforcement,” Ledbetter said. “I richly understand issues on both sides of that equation - the distrust of law enforcement by many in the Black community, based on historical and current incidents of disrespect, racism, discrimination, brutality and murder. On my Blue side I know that there is often a disconnect with community based on the community's lack of knowledge of laws, rights, and policies; that departments are not always representative of their communities nor do enough to build trust or highlight their positive interactions, and that most officers are committed to protecting and serving everyone in their communities and many have made the ultimate sacrifice, with their lives, because they were going to help someone or stop crime.” 

Ledbetter shares that’s why the training was focused on these key areas:

• Sharing facts and having a discussion on U.S. history related to policing and cases and laws that set the foundation for law enforcement in our country.

• Facilitating impactful racial healing circles where the cadets and community members engaged in listening, becoming open to others’ perspectives and experiences and allowing oneself to be impacted and/or transformed by the experience.

• Acknowledging that we all have implicit bias, and to work on removing assumptions and/or
  stereotypes based on visual first impressions and lack of positive interactions with various groups of people.

“It is vital that we continue to lift up how we got to where we are as a community to fully understand the issues we see, instead of making assumptions,” Sholanna Lewis, lead for TRHT Kalamazoo, healing practitioner and program officer, Kalamazoo Community Foundation said. “Given that so many participants from the community had lived experience with the historical events that were highlighted, the opportunity for understanding was so much greater.”

Ledbetter shared that the feedback from participants was powerful with one cadet suggesting the training be offered in police academies across the state and U.S. in addition to ongoing training provided throughout their law enforcement careers. TRHT Kalamazoo envisions expanding this work in the future.

“We do hope to continue to work with various law enforcement agencies in the community, focused on building understanding of lived experience and relationship but also lifting up criminal justice data that tells a story and helps us see potential solutions from a structural level,” Lewis said. “We also hope to do similar convenings for other agencies, sectors and community groups over the next year.”

Want more?

Learn more about TRHT.

Connect with TRHT Kalamazoo.