“What an incredible, transforming twelve weeks.  Your leadership led us deeper into understanding racism and moved us to do something.  Thank you for making the trip up north and taking your weekends.  Blessings on your continued work.”

“A quick note to thank you for your leadership at our assembly.  It was no small challenge to agree to lead these conversations with a very large group with whom you were not familiar.  But you provided excellent materials for people to read as they prepared and then, in a way that was both invitational but also direct, led us to engage realities of race, history, cultural patterns, and privilege.  We were pleased to have you take on this important work.  Thank you!”

“The ASDIC experience is rigorous, compassionate, respectful and non-coercive. ASDIC participants undertake an intellectual and emotional examination of the historical social, political, and economic factors that continue to divide, limit, and exclude. Patient, kind, and supporting, the ASDIC Facilitators invite each participant to walk with them to explore the bitter and ugly places that are typically denied or avoided.  Out of this process participants experience glimmers of a society beyond denial, shame, guilt, and rage – a society constructed on compassion, community, justice, hope, and love.”

“Community leaders are often reluctant to publicly admit what they do not know, such as the cause and effect of racism. ASDIC Circles provide a safe environment for the study of this issue. By bringing a group of leaders from diverse professions together, not only can leaders discuss issues at a level of common understanding (they face similar public scrutiny), but they can discover how the different entities interrelate and can collaborate to advance antiracism programs in the community. Educating and motivating staff to do antiracism work is a difficult endeavor. Through lessons learned and partnerships forged through ASDIC circles, leaders find they do not have to suffer it alone and can convey to staff, with conviction, not only the importance of the work to the community, but that the partners in our daily activities are also committed to the work.”

“I have waited thirty years to witness and participate in a circle tackling racism. I am so proud and feel complete to move forward in my journey toward creating an antiracist community.”

“The ASDIC Circle has been a rich experience for me. Developing a mature understanding of how racism impacts all of our lives is an important obligation we owe ourselves if we are committed to building communities based on justice and peace with one another. ASDIC challenged me at a deep level but always within a spirit of hope and joy for the world we can build together.”

“ASDIC is a challenging, but always safe and mutually supportive meeting of differing but kindred minds.  In ASDIC, you discover how devastating racism is economically, socially, and spiritually, but you also get to know wonderful people who believe we can fight racism and win.”

“By providing more than an empathic awareness of the ills of racism, ASDIC equips participants with an advanced knowledge of racism and history, builds personal resilience, and encourages relationships to be developed and maintained. ASDIC is a means to make a difference by providing practical tools needed to enable us to eliminate racism.”

“As a community member who is deeply troubled by the continuing instances of racism and racial disparity in the Twin Cities and across the nation, I was grateful for the opportunity to participate in a program that was safe, challenging, uplifting, and truly profound. In our daily lives, there is little opportunity to learn and reflect in a way that is as substantive as ASDIC provides.”

“The ASDIC experience is transformative because it encourages participants to engage deeply and honestly on a topic we have been socialized to avoid. Through the readings, videos and dialogue, I have found renewed hope that by building “beloved communities”, we can and will confront and dismantle systemic racism. Our ASDIC Circle lasted twelve weeks, but the knowledge and insight I gained will last a lifetime. Thank you!”

“Most of my life I have lived in multi ethnic and multi racial communities without realizing how much white privilege has given me. The ASDIC circle experience brings to focus what we as descendants of Europeans have gained materially but lost in human terms from the perpetuation of racism. The need for justice is not an abstraction. We need not only to rethink our role in perpetuating the edifice of racism, but to actively change it.  ASDIC has helped me in this.”

“I am so proud of you and the award you received for your role in ASDIC earlier this year. The opportunity to participate in the Peace UCC ASDIC 3-4 years ago changed my perspective on racism, and our group, in turn, challenged the Peace UCC congregation to grow in its awareness of racism within ourselves, our church, and our community. I appreciate your role in this growth and feel blessed to be a part of this process.”