Belonging for all people is paramount. Everyone deserves to be valued and heard.

As our country reacts to the tragic occurrences of social injustice, disconnection, and divisiveness, a solution for charting a course to build a culture of Belonging for all people is paramount. Everyone deserves to be valued and heard.

Join us on Friday, October 23 with John A. Powell for a live virtual conversation to advance this vital community conversation on Othering and Belonging. John is an internationally recognized expert and thought leader on civil rights, civil liberties, structural racism, fair housing, poverty, and democracy.

Rockford Public Library through NICNE (Northern Illinois Center for Nonprofit Excellence) is hosting a 12:00 p.m. conversation with Professor Powell and a small diverse group of community members who are committed to moving the work on Belonging forward, on how we can better understand and promote belonging in our community. This 12:00 p.m. conversation will be shared via live stream at our J.R. Sullivan Theatre at the Nordlof Center for the greater community to view, ask questions, and learn how to engage in the work on Belonging in our community.

Seating is limited to 25, click here to register https://bit.ly/3cJw2eE

John will share his work on Othering and Belonging and lead a critical conversation around the deep need for belonging where there is no “other,” and how to better understand and promote Belonging in our community.

John is the Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, a research institute bringing people together to identify and eliminate the barriers to an inclusive, just, and sustainable society and to create transformative change toward a more equitable world. John is well-known for his work on “targeted universalism” and “othering and belonging” and is the author of several books, including his most recent work, Racing to Justice: Transforming our Concepts of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society.

NICNE has convened the Rockford Public Library, Eliminate Racism 815, NAACP, Transform Rockford, Liam Foundation, Center for Nonviolence & Conflict Transformation (CNCT), City of Rockford, Unitarian Universalist Church, and several other organizations and individuals to plan this event, made possible by support from the Kjellstrom Family Foundation, Transform Rockford, and media partner WREX.