Many Mississippians want to do something about the state of race relations here, and TRHT gives them a place to start.
The Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) initiative, supported by the Foundation for the Mid South, is Mississippi’s answer to that call. It brings people together around four pillars: narrative change, storytelling, relationship building, and economic transformation.
At the center of it all is one simple belief: every Mississippian, regardless of race or ethnicity, deserves access to opportunity and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.
TRHT Mississippi runs a five-month Transformational Leadership & Racial Healing Cohort, built to equip a diverse group of leaders with the tools, relationships, and vision to carry racial healing and systemic change back into their own communities. Anchored in the TRHT framework, the program blends historical reflection,
personal growth, and hands-on strategy into one immersive experience.
Each cohort track is led by a Mississippi TRHT Alliance member, and every participant works through five core modules over the course of the program:
Laying the Foundation for what Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation is and why it matters
Building the skills to challenge domination narratives and tell more honest, healing-centered stories
Building relationships, trust, and the skills to facilitate racial healing circles
Mapping systemic inequality and identifying where change is possible
Turning everything learned into a real action plan, with a timeline and public commitment
Along the way, participants also get:
In 2025, six institutional partners were selected to lead the Mississippi’s TRHT initiative because of their deep community ties, capacity, and commitment to racial healing.
Meet the seven storytellers behind the Delta Story Project.
As Told By SIR
Audio Storytelling
Jackson, MS
SpiritHouseGlass
Visual Art
Jackson, MS
In Her Shoes, Inc.
Visual Art
Mound Bayou, MS
Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity (IAJE)
Oral History & Storytelling
Jackson, MS
We2gether Creating Change
Documentary Film
Drew, MS
Visual Art
Jackson, MS
Journalism &
Cultural Documentation
Greenwood, MS
“One Community” listening sessions were held in Picayune, Hattiesburg, and Biloxi, Mississippi, bringing together community members, local business leaders, and
faith organizations for meaningful dialogue about race, economic equity, and solutions to longstanding issues.
Mission Mississippi organized multiple pre-meetings with regional leaders to ensure diverse representation, working with stakeholders like the MS Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce, United Way of Southeast MS, Hattiesburg Area Development Partnership, and Hattiesburg High School.
The Foundation for the Mid South introduced informative and impactful webinars centered around narrative change.
Racial Healing Webinars:
• Growing Coalition of Change
• Mississippi Unchained
• Elevation Through Racial Healing
Evaluation reports track how TRHT is landing with local residents — mapping perspectives, and highlighting both pathways and roadblocks to racial unity across Mississippi.
Download Reports:
Mississippi’s TRHT Alliance is part of something much bigger. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) launched Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation as a national framework in 2016, working with more than 140 partners to build a process communities across the country could use to confront racism’s historic and present-day impacts. Mississippi joined that national community of practice in 2022.
