Coro was founded with a mission of training leaders to support a thriving democracy, as a collaborative laboratory to inspire hope, possibility, and action for the greater public good. Human rights rest at the foundation of a thriving democracy — to create a truly thriving democracy, we must acknowledge and address systemic racism.
We at Coro denounce the systemic racism and violence inflicted upon Black lives.
To the Black and African American members of our community and across the country, we see your pain, we hold space for your rage, and we commit to doing our part to combat the structural racism and brutality that continues to be perpetrated against Black lives.
Creating programs that support a thriving democracy is at the very core of our mission. We want to articulate our commitment to deepening Coro’s anti-racism work by:
- Working to empower leaders at every level with the capacity to create systemic change.
- Continuing to deepen our lifelong Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging work, for our team, Board, and program participants.
- Actively seeking opportunities to more fully realize Coro’s philosophy of leadership that risks the transformation of mind and heart.
- Consciously creating meaningful opportunities for the Coro community to connect and share resources, support, advocacy, and ideas. (Such as this anti-racism resource list created by the Women in Leadership Spring 2020 cohort).
- Continually evaluating the perspectives and experiences that we bring into our programs through interview guests and placements; and identifying areas, voices, and ideas that are not meaningfully included in Coro programs.
- Deepening our commitment to creating a consistent and open space for feedback. If you have feedback to share about any aspect of our work, please reach out to us: feedback@coronorcal.org.
We will continue to share with you the progress we’re making, and we welcome your input. There’s a lot of work to be done.
Laney Whitcanack is the CEO of Coro Northern California and an alumna of the Fellows Program in Public Affairs.