MEETING COMMUNITY NEEDS

American society has found itself in a long-in-coming difficult moment, rooted in pain, generational grief, and a certain distrust between the police and the communities they police. At Kirkpatrick Foundation, we mourn these deaths for the private devastation they have caused and the pandemic of lynchings they represent.

We have a history of standing up against cruelty. In recent years, we have been working in the realm of social transformation using a framework called Collective Impact, a practical approach to achieving long-term and sustainable results. When examining relationships among networked groups of any size and scale—whether within a family system or within a geographic area—three components are essential for what we call “high trust values.” Those are 1) reliability, 2) shared mission, and 3) openness to discussion. When any one leg of the stool is broken, we have social breakdown. The death of George Floyd reflects this breakdown.

Kirkpatrick Foundation has long stood for quality of life in Central Oklahoma. We are known locally for our work in the arts and animal well-being, but we also work in education, historic preservation, and environmental conservation. We stand ready to support those social healing endeavors that will escort our city to the highest standards of quality of life in the nation, and we offer our participation in these efforts. We continue our belief in a beautiful future for Oklahoma, where everyone can feel like they exist—and thrive—in a safe and humane place.