W. Haywood Burns
The W. Haywood Burns Institute: Working to Transform Justice
The W. Haywood Burns Institute (BI) is a black-led, national nonprofit with a diverse team of bold visionaries. Always challenging racial hierarchy and the social control of communities of color by the justice sector and other public systems, BI employs strategies and tactics to establish a community-centered approach to transformation that is anchored in structural well-being.
BI uses the term Structural Well-Being strategically, as it represents a reimagined system of public policies, institutional and inclusive practices, cultural representations, and other norms that work to strengthen families, communities, and individual well-being for positive life outcomes. This notion is in direct contrast to the nation’s current operational framework of structural racism.
Structural Well-Being Framework ©
BI believes centering community to establish self-directed solutions is critical to achieving transformational change and better life outcomes. All too often communities of color are not engaged in the design and/or implementation of the solutions necessary to achieve their own well-being. As such, sectors have repeatedly failed to make impactful sustainable change.