Explorations Into Relational Repair: Reflections, Intentions, and Experiences of Practitioners Engaged in Relational Repair is a report jointly authored by a partnership between the 79-year-old Compton Foundation, headquartered in San Francisco, California (and which spent down its remaining assets by 2025), and Informing Change.

Compton Foundation commissioned this research to make visible the nascent and novel approaches being tested in cross-racial and cross-class relational repair; to share the ideas and limitations across personal, interpersonal, and organizational exchanges; and to ignite more prototyping of relational repair efforts. Informing Change brought to this effort a depth of experience in strategic learning, research, and evaluation in the social and philanthropic sectors, drawing on work since 1998 to shape the design and analysis of the project.

Rather than attempting to confine or categorize the nascent work of relational repair, this report reflects on the shared questions, practices, and possibilities emerging across different efforts. The research revealed there is no single framework in relational repair; rather, there is an embodied practice that unfolds, through a process of inquiry, into what it means to mend harm historically woven into systems and relationships. Instead of offering definitive answers, this report probes big questions: If reparations for slavery were enacted at the federal level, what more would be needed to achieve true healing? What does repair look and feel like, personally, communally, and institutionally? What new ways of being might be necessary to make repair possible?

Overall, this report:

• Documents, shares, and synthesizes perspectives from the practitioners engaging in relational repair in service of reparations.
• Explores the questions, practices, and possibilities of relational repair.
• Shares insights from various models of, and approaches to, relational repair.

The report can be downloaded here with additional related content available at relationalrepair.org. This report was prepared by the following individuals:

Informing Change

• Michael P. Arnold (he/him), PhD, Partner & Executive Director
• Eliel Tekka Gebru (she/her), Senior Associate
• Rachel Kramer (they/them), Associate
• Ayenna Cagaanan (any/all), Associate
• Johnny Du (he/him), Writer/Editor

Compton Foundation

• Audrey Jacobs (she/her): Fellow
• Caitlin Brune (she/her): Fellow
• C’Ardiss Gardner Gleser (she/her): Fellow
• June Wilson (she/her): Executive Director
• Ivywild Editing and Writing: Writer/Editor
• Big Tada: Design