About
We help parents, caregivers, and educators raise children who understand race, value inclusion, and work toward a more just and connected future.
Our Story
It started with two parents who couldn't find what they needed — so they built it.
In 2016, EmbraceRace's founders went looking for real guidance on how to talk with their own kids about race. What they found was scattered, thin, or nonexistent. So they built the thing they wished existed: a place where any parent, grandparent, or teacher could find honest, research-grounded answers, delivered with warmth instead of judgment.
Since then, thousands of caregivers have done what those two parents did first: shown up, asked the hard question, and chosen courage over silence. That same instinct — the refusal to look away — is what connects everyone in the EmbraceRace community today, whether they're raising a child, teaching a classroom, or funding the work that makes it all possible.
EmbraceRace helps parents, caregivers, and educators raise children who are thoughtful, informed, and brave about race, especially in the birth through middle school years.
We work in three overlapping spaces:
🛠️ Everyday tools for adults: We offer evidence-based guidance on what to do and why to do it. Our Color-Brave Caregiver Framework, booklists, webinars, and toolkits turn the research on early racial learning and development into doable routines. We bring this work into homes, classrooms, museums, and faith communities.
🤝 Communities of practice: We convene learning communities where adults can listen, learn, practice, and exchange ideas and experiences. Whether it is parents of young kids of color, White parents of White kids, or early childhood educators, our members don’t just consume content. They try things, compare notes, and support one another.
🏗️ Field-building: We are working with partners to grow a field focused on how and what children learn about race and racism, and on how we can create the conditions for healthier learning. This includes our National Parent Survey, our Reflections on Children’s Racial Learning report series, and the National Convening on Children’s Racial Learning we held in Chicago and hope to organize on a regular basis.
Who Makes This Possible
EmbraceRace runs on people who refuse to sit this one out.
- Caregivers show up first — asking questions, trying strategies, and telling us what worked so we can make our resources better.
- Volunteers and Fellows lead workshops, moderate community spaces, and mentor caregivers taking their first brave step.
- Donors and monthly supporters fund every free guide, webinar, and community space — so a family's access to this work never depends on their ability to pay for it.
- Partners and funders in philanthropy, education, tech, health, and public policy help us turn what we learn in living rooms and classrooms into research the whole field can use.
Every one of these people is doing the same thing, from a different seat: refusing to let a generation grow up without the tools to understand race, belonging, and each other. If that's you, there's a seat with your name on it.
Volunteer · Become a Fellow · Contact us at hugs@embracerace.org.
Our Mission
EmbraceRace supports parents, caregivers, and educators of children from birth through middle school to raise kids who are thoughtful, informed, and brave about race — because whatever you care about, whether it's democracy, public health, or education, the lessons kids get about race today are shaping it.
We identify, organize, and create the tools, resources, discussion spaces, and networks to:
- Nurture resilience and joy in children of color
- Nurture inclusive, empathetic children of all stripes
- Raise kids who think critically about race and racial inequality
- Support a movement of kid and adult racial justice advocates for all children
Your Part in this Story
You don't have to be a parent to help raise a generation that's braver about race than the one before it. Every gift — five dollars a month or five thousand dollars a year — becomes another caregiver's action guide, another classroom's first honest conversation, another kid who grows up knowing how to see clearly and love well.