The Beloved Organizing, Healing, and Training Institute (BOTHI)
Try to imagine a Greensboro where we have greatly reduced or even eradicated the hierarchy of human value that undergirds racism and all forms of abuse. Imagine a Greensboro where we learn to value the dignity, worth and potential of all. Imagine this community working together to ensure a decent standard of living. BOTHI is dedicated to training community building organizers. Training includes helping to heal the “soul” wounds and scars inflicted upon all of us growing out of our tortuous yesterdays, in particular people of color. Drawing from the best of our 50 continuous years of organizing in Greensboro and across the nation, our process involves blending the wisdom gleaned in our yesterday with the beautiful, new, militant, and creative energies growing out of the struggles of today to systematically share the learnings with communities, sectors, and cities to forge better tomorrows. We believe we are in an epoch-changing period of crisis, chaos, and collapse involving structures, systems, and culture.
The Beloved Organizing, Healing, and Training Institute (BOTHI)
Try to imagine a Greensboro where we have greatly reduced or even eradicated the hierarchy of human value that undergirds racism and all forms of abuse. Imagine a Greensboro where we learn to value the dignity, worth and potential of all. Imagine this community working together to ensure a decent standard of living. BOTHI is dedicated to training community building organizers. Training includes helping to heal the “soul” wounds and scars inflicted upon all of us growing out of our tortuous yesterdays, in particular people of color. Drawing from the best of our 50 continuous years of organizing in Greensboro and across the nation, our process involves blending the wisdom gleaned in our yesterday with the beautiful, new, militant, and creative energies growing out of the struggles of today to systematically share the learnings with communities, sectors, and cities to forge better tomorrows. We believe we are in an epoch-changing period of crisis, chaos, and collapse involving structures, systems, and culture.
Instead of focusing on making a few adjustments to “fit in” better to a collapsing social order, our training will spur us to reimagine what it takes to make the changes necessary to forge a better quality of life for all, especially the most marginalized. This period will certainly require protest and resistance, but we are convinced that we must “bend” protest and resistance energy into building transformative ways of thinking, building alternative institutions, and rebuilding broken neighborhoods and communities. While our training is available to all sectors, races, faiths, and ages, training marginalized youth to rebuild their own neighborhoods and communities, with emphasis on community safety, neighborhood-based economic enterprises, health and wellness, education for life are central to our approach.