{"id":197661,"date":"2025-10-23T15:56:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T15:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/?post_type=case_studies&p=197661"},"modified":"2026-03-25T17:38:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T17:38:45","slug":"from-ancestry-to-action-a-nurses-transformative-journey-in-racial-reconciliation-through-living-room-conversations","status":"publish","type":"case_studies","link":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/case_studies\/from-ancestry-to-action-a-nurses-transformative-journey-in-racial-reconciliation-through-living-room-conversations\/","title":{"rendered":"From Ancestry to Action: A Nurse\u2019s Transformative Journey in Racial Reconciliation through Living Room Conversations\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
[Rachel Leavitt, Missouri, USA]<\/em>
<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Rachel Leavitt, a dedicated nurse, educator, and health coach, has always focused on creating healing spaces and fostering community well-being, particularly for women and children in pregnancy and postpartum care. But a deeper, spiritual calling led her to a profound journey: racial reconciliation. This path was deeply personal, rooted in her own ancestry as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, tracing back to Brigham Young and the impactful priesthood ban that originated from a speech he delivered in the Utah Territorial Legislature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driven by this spiritual inclination to bridge divides, Rachel embarked on a quest to facilitate reconciliation. Her exploration led her to Living Room Conversations, an initiative she had been part of for a year. Recognizing its potential, she enrolled in a facilitator training course, honing her skills to guide these crucial discussions. For several years now, Rachel has been a leading voice, facilitating racial dialogues in diverse settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her commitment deepened through her work with Black Lives Bless, a group dedicated to facilitating webinars and celebrating the vital contributions of African Americans within the LDS Church. Their journey began with a powerful webinar featuring Paul Reeve, delving into the history of Black individuals and the priesthood. Over 200 people attended, a testament to the hunger for this knowledge, though most observed rather than actively participated. Following the webinar, a smaller, more intimate conversation unfolded. Despite initial anxieties about potential harm or hurtful racial comments\u2014a common challenge in the LDS Church culture when addressing sensitive topics like race\u2014the conversation was overwhelmingly positive. Participants expressed a sense of progress, a vital step forward in addressing race within their community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As their work evolved, Rachel and her team meticulously navigated concerns about potential negative impacts on the Black community. They ensured that Black voices were central to guiding and shaping their conversations, ensuring a deep understanding of what could be harmful or unhelpful. An attempt at a larger presentation without conversation quickly revealed a crucial insight: smaller, more intimate discussions were far more effective and beneficial in fostering genuine engagement and understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This journey has been one of continuous learning, adaptation, and responsiveness to feedback. While not always easy, the benefits have been immeasurable. They continue these vital conversations using the Living Room Conversations format, even expanding to “Racial Reconciliation Around the Dinner Table,” where shared meals become a backdrop for profound discussions on racial topics. Their focus remains on small group interactions, aiming to reach larger numbers of people, normalize these conversations, mitigate harm, and cultivate emotional resilience. They acknowledge the inherent emotional challenges of discussing race, ensuring participants feel comfortable opting out if the discomfort becomes too great. As long as there’s a need to learn and address difficult histories, these discussions will continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rachel’s appreciation for Living Room Conversations and the training she received is immense, crediting it with making her entire endeavor possible. The framework and conversation agreements have been indispensable guides. Despite the challenging nature of many of these dialogues, Rachel consistently emerges with a deeper understanding of herself and others. Her passion now lies in making this transformative process accessible to even more individuals, particularly those grappling with difficult historical issues like the history of the LDS Church and Black individuals in the priesthood, and navigating the role of prophets in relation to race. She is particularly keen on empowering leaders to confidently guide these conversations as more and more questions emerge. Rachel frequently directs people to the Living Room Conversations model, encouraging them to participate in existing dialogues to experience firsthand how these powerful discussions unfold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taken from a testimonial by Rachel Leavitt<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Rachel Leavitt, Missouri, USA] Rachel Leavitt, a dedicated nurse, educator, and health coach, has always focused on creating healing spaces and fostering community well-being, particularly for women and children in pregnancy and postpartum care. But a deeper, spiritual calling led her to a profound journey: racial reconciliation. This path was deeply personal, rooted in her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":212285,"parent":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[121],"tags":[119,154,155],"class_list":["post-197661","case_studies","type-case_studies","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-case-study","tag-case-studies","tag-missouri","tag-race"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case_studies\/197661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case_studies"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/case_studies"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case_studies\/197661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}