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Our Mission

Our Mission

We are building a national movement of Students, Parents, Educators, and School Board Members

We believe that an honest, equitable, and fully funded public education is the foundation for a just, multiracial democracy.

Formed in 2022, HEAL Together was initiated by Race Forward in partnership with NYU Metro Center & the Schott Foundation.

HEAL (Honest Education, Action and Leadership) Together was created in response to the escalating racist and anti-LGBTQ+ attacks on public schools in recent years. HEAL Together has grown into a movement led by students, educators, parents, and school board members in hundreds of school districts across the United States who are committed to protecting public education as a public good so that all students can thrive.

What We Do

We provide tools and trainings to help communities advocate for the public schools we all deserve. We help make sure that students receive an honest education about our history and how it shapes our present, can read books that accurately represent their lives and the lives of others, and receive the resources, support, and skills they need to thrive.

What We Believe

We believe that public education, at its best, should prepare students to become citizens. At its best, public education prepares students for democracy by creating a space where students of all backgrounds work with one another toward common goals. At its best, public education creates connected communities that are united in their purpose to provide the next generation with the knowledge and skills to shape a better future.

But public education is under attack from special interests using the specter of “wokeness” to divide our communities and defund our public schools.

Thankfully, most people are not buying these divisive tactics. People like you are showing that, despite these efforts to divide us, we can win public schools that reflect the promise of a just, multiracial democracy - a democracy in which we all thrive.