| Program: | National Coalition Building Institute | | Contact(s): | Cherie R. Brown, Executive Director: (202) 785-9400 | | Purpose: | To build anti-racism response teams that do activist projects, lead prejudice-reduction workshops and intervene in tough inter-group conflicts | | Background The National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) is a nonprofit leadership-training organization based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1984, NCBI has been working to eliminate prejudice and intergroup conflict in communities around the country. NCBI has trained leadership teams in a variety of settings, including high schools, colleges, universities, corporations, foundations as well as government agencies. Currently, NCBI has 50 city-based leadership teams, also known as chapters, 30 organization-based team or affiliates and over 40 college and university teams known as campus affiliates. Program Operations
NCBI organizes teams composed of community leaders who learn to develop concrete community action plans. Training programs are then run by NCBI's Leadership for Diversity Institute and the Prejudice Reduction Training Institute. Trainers attend three-day seminars on how to handle emotional and institutional discrimination and how to empower individuals to build constructive alliances. These trainers then work with community groups to help explore racial stereotypes, oppression and discrimination. The program workshops are participatory in nature and empower individuals of all ages and backgrounds to take a leadership role in their communities and build inclusive environments that welcome diversity. Outcomes and Significant Accomplishments NCBI conducts about 3,000 training sessions each year. The institute also takes a proactive stance in addressing current events. For example, in the aftermath of the O.J. Simpson verdict, NCBI brought together 28 leaders from around the world to build a network of activists to fight racism. Following discrimination suits filed against Denny's restaurant, NCBI trained a team of in-house diversity trainers for the restaurant chain. |
