Truth & Purpose Learning Experiences
A profound experience that will imbue you with a heightened level of compassion and respect for history makers as it inspires you to help create a future defined by integrity, equity, and democracy.
The Institute for Common Power Truth & Purpose Learning Tours are profound journeys through the American South and through self. We committed to fighting the assault on truth that is occurring in cities across the country. Moreover, we are wholly dedicated to the essentiality of finding / renewing purpose. We explore aspects of our collective history that are too often dismissed, ignored, or denied. By diving into the historical roots of this country and attendant racial and structural disparities born from the past, we aim to equip you with the knowledge and insights necessary to recognize and dismantle injustice as you drive lasting change.
While our central focus will be the modern American Civil Rights Movement, our journey will place the movement in historical context. The places we visit allow us to examine the long history of people of African descent in America. You cannot understand the Civil Rights Movement without understanding the broader history of African Americans. By extension, you cannot understand our modern existence without exploring the historical processes that have worked to create both tragedy and triumph.
The learning tours are led by renown scholars in their fields as well as foot soldiers from the past and present who transform the nation. You will learn from historical events and contemporary first-hand experiences of people and institutions that did, and are doing, transformative and inspirational work. You will come away inspired to create change!
We are moved, we are part of a Movement, and we must move. This is what we, at the Institute for Common Power, call Movement Learning. Essential to our definition and execution of Movement Learning is the act of physically engaging in learning at the sites where history occurred as we move into a future defined by equity. Movement Learning, then, is a three-tiered ideology that entails learning from social movements that preceded us, learning by going, learning how to project and create change as we move into a more equitable future.
Truth & Purpose Learning Experience for Educators
The application for the February 26 through March 3, 2026 is now open! Expenses are paid, if you are selected.
“There is no way to really describe the experience of a learning tour and surely there are no words that could ever do justice to the way it can affect your life.” - Institute Educator Ambassador
“The value of attending a learning tour, institute courses, lectures, banned book club and monthly convenings has been greatly appreciated. This has been a difficult year for me professionally and I don't feel valued or seen at my school. Everything the Institute of Common Power has offered has made me feel welcomed, appreciated and seen. I enjoy having a safe space to discuss current events and how the impact of things being overturn is being detrimental to our history, especially to students of color. It's nice to reconnect with members of my learning tour and its been nice to develop a bond with other educators at the monthly convenings. I've attended about 5-6 lectures and am astonished with the high caliber of learning we are presented. Every lecture I've attended has expanded my knowledge and given me more information and details about the topic.” -Institute Educator Ambassador
The Institute for Common Power partners with teachers, tutors, curriculum specialists, organizational foundations, and school system leaders across the country to provide an experiential learning opportunity for educators in the long historical arcs of Civil Rights, Voting Rights, and the African American experience in America. Truth in education is essential for democracy to work and truth is under attack in many parts of the country. We are dedicated to creating a nation of educators who understand and teach accurate, sometimes, challenging, history while serving as models for students learning how to work collaboratively in building a just and inclusive American democracy. Educators who are accepted into the program receive full scholarships that cover airfare, ground transportation, hotels, and meals.
Truth & Purpose Learning Experience, April 30 - May 5, 2026
Join Institute Director Dr. Terry Anne Scott, Associate Director of Common Power (CP) Dr. David Domke, and other CP staff in an investment in CP's foundational principles of mindset, mojo, mobilization with a trip to Atlanta, Montgomery, Selma, and Birmingham AL. These are not vacations; they are challenging, growing, intentional deep dives into historical and contemporary realities of race and voting justice, realities that are foundational to the work of Common Power. The goal, always, is to move from education to action.
Learn More and Register Here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/truth-purpose-the-institute-for-common-power-learning-tour-spring-2026-tickets-1422943244549?aff=oddtdtcreator
Unlocking a Pathway to Health Equity: The Institute for Common Power in collaboration with the University of Washington Department of Medicine
The Institute for Common Power (501c3) is dedicated to illuminating undervalued, underappreciated, pivotal aspects of our collective history. We offer workshops, courses, lectures, learning tour experiences, and much more to teach about too-often dismissed or lesser known aspects of American history, especially African American history. The Institute’s Truth & Purpose Learning Experience for Healthcare Professionals: Unlocking a Pathway to Health Equity is an immersive journey through the American South to visit key places and people involved in the long historical arcs of Civil Rights, Voting Rights, and African American experiences in America. It will provide healthcare professionals with the ability to recognize and address racial biases. For this journey, we are working in collaboration with the University of Washington Department of Medicine. The Truth & Purpose Learning Tour is a profound experience that will imbue participants with a heightened level of compassion as it inspires you to help create a future defined by integrity and equity, while working to eliminate racial bias in healthcare and health outcomes.
At the Institute for Common Power, we recognize the urgent need to confront and dismantle institutionalized racism within the U.S. healthcare system. To this end, we work in partnership with established medical organizations to expose and eliminate racial disparities in health care by providing education, resources, and support to healthcare professionals and marginalized communities. Our commitment to this cause is unwavering and we are excited to introduce our Truth and Purpose Learning Experience for Healthcare Professionals, set to occur in March 2026.
The Institute for Common Power Truth and Purpose Learning Experience for Healthcare Professionals is a journey like no other. Designed to take people in various healthcare occupations through spaces in the American South where structural racism has impacted and defined the lives of countless people for generations–spaces where, despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles, people have historically worked to create change.
While our central focus will be the modern American Civil Rights Movement, our journey will place the movement in historical context. The places we visit allow us to examine the long history of people of African descent in America. You cannot understand the Civil Rights Movement without understanding the broader history of African Americans. By extension, you cannot understand our modern existence without exploring the historical processes that have worked to create both tragedy and triumph.
Learning Objectives:
The participant will understand the relationship between the historical context of race and healthcare in the United States, as well as the contemporary racial disproportionality of healthcare outcomes. By diving into the historical roots of this country to learn about attendant racial and structural disparities born from the past, and to be catalyzed by so many inspiring ordinary people who did extraordinary things, we equip medical professionals the knowledge and insights necessary to recognize and dismantle injustice as they drive lasting change in the field of medicine.
The participant will gain the ability to recognize and redress biases within themselves, their communities, and their institutions.
Healthcare professionals who go on this journey return with a better understanding of the power of their role in addressing racism in medicine. It provides them with a community of other healthcare professionals committed to providing culturally competent and compassionate care, changing the lives of their patients and colleagues.
Leadership Team:
This initiative is led by a highly experienced team, including Dr. Terry Anne Scott, Director of the Institute for Common Power and an award-winning historian and professor; Dr. David Domke, Common Power’s Associate Director and award-winning professor of Communication; and Malinda Marroquin, MSHCA, RN, NEA-BC, Senior Director Perioperative Business and Operations at the University of Maryland Capital Region Health; as well as several rising-leaders in the Institute. We will meet with highly regarded healthcare professionals and organizations throughout the journey who are committed to providing equitable and culturally competent care to their communities. Additionally, we are joined throughout the experience by Civil Rights heroes (e.g. Dr. Bernard LaFayette, JoAnne Bland, Charles Mauldin) with whom we have built relationships over several years of visiting Alabama. We are also joined by nationally renowned historians, including Dr. Yohuru Williams, who shares knowledge and insights about the historical and contemporary people and places we visit. Other changemakers, including poets and artists and lawyers, also join us along the way.
For more information, contact us at institute@commonpower.org
Truth & Purpose Learning Tour for Medical Professionals - September 10-15, 2026
We partner with organizations from around the country to lead them through our Truth & Purpose Learning Tours. From the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project, to the Washington Women’s Foundation, to the Seattle Seahawks, BlackPAC, and many more, our partner organizations are essential to the work we do in building a more just and inclusive democracy as we safeguard the teaching of truth.
If you are interested in partnering with us for a Truth & Purpose Learning Tour, please contact us at institute@commonpower.org.
