Everybody As Our Own
The community expression of Empathos, turning shared principles into participation, relationship, and action.
The Initiative
What Everybody As Our Own is
Everybody As Our Own (EBAOO) is the community expression of Empathos. It began with a conviction: that we can come together with compassion, empathy, and deep respect and remember who we are to one another.
The initiative introduces ways of being that help overcome prejudice and bring people together in kinship. It is not a program you watch from a distance. It is a community you enter.
EBAOO is where the Empathos philosophy becomes community participation, sustained relationship, and action.
The Case For Kinship
If racism wins, we all lose
Division is not natural. It is taught, reinforced, and maintained by systems and stories that benefit from keeping people apart. Kinship, the choice to see every person as our own, is the antidote.
This is not naive optimism. It requires naming what is broken and choosing, again and again, to stay in the room together.
Current Initiatives
Join us in taking action and creating community
Everybody As Our Own was created to be a mission, a movement, and a gathering of hearts and souls to create beloved community.
Its initiatives focus on racial and criminal justice, anti-racist identity, peaceful conflict resolution, authentic storytelling, community engagement, empathy, and kinship.
The Right to Vote
Protecting voting rights and naming the history and present-day practices that suppress participation.
#Not In My Name
A movement to address fear-based policing and help communities seek honest, healing dialogue with law enforcement.
Building Beloved Community
Monthly gatherings, Hear & Now conversations, blogs, workshops, shared resources, and practices of kinship.
Voting Rights
The Right to Vote
Voting is the cornerstone of a functioning democracy. It is not just a right but a responsibility that empowers citizens to shape their communities and futures.
The right to have rights is embedded in the Constitution, yet current laws and practices do not always reflect that principle. The 14th Amendment defined citizenship and equal protection. The 15th Amendment granted citizens the right to vote, and the backlash was immediate, violent, and organized against newly freed Black people trying to exercise that right.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed voter intimidation and helped increase Black voter participation. After the Supreme Court weakened key protections in 2013, states again gained more room to use methods that suppress the votes of specific populations. Protecting the vote remains part of building beloved community.
Common Cause
A nonpartisan grassroots organization working for open, honest, and accountable government.
Learn more →
Brennan Center for Justice
A nonpartisan law and policy institute focused on defending and revitalizing democracy and justice systems.
Learn more →
Reclaim the American Dream
A civic action effort focused on helping people use their voices in the democratic process.
Learn more →
Demos
A think tank working toward a just, inclusive, multiracial democracy rooted in racial equity.
Learn more →
Fair Fight Action
An organization fighting voter suppression and advocating for free and fair elections.
Learn more →
ACLU
A civil liberties organization defending rights through courts, legislatures, and communities.
Learn more →
Campaign
#Not In My Name
Reach out and initiate productive and healing conversations with your local law enforcement to stop fear-based violence.
Police violence against unarmed people of color is often justified or excused in the name of keeping white people, businesses, and communities safe. The escalating fear this creates is overwhelming both sides, and the results are toxic for all.
#Not In My Name helps dispel that false, fear-based justification and invites anti-racists everywhere into direct, honest, and caring outreach with local police forces so communities can seek alternatives to using violence in the name of white safety.
Reach Out To Police
Request a meeting, begin with appreciation, hear their story, and tell the truth about what you have seen or what concerns you.
Find your local police department →Listen, Learn & Monitor
Ask how violent encounters are reported, whether additional training could save lives, and whether other professionals are used to solve community problems.
Stand Up For Others
Stand with those suffering under brutal police tactics and use trusted conversations to prepare for critical dialogue in your own community.
Watch Hear & Now conversations →An EBAOO Community Program
Hear & Now Conversations
Hear & Now Conversations is an EBAOO community program where people come together to discuss race, history, truth, and healing within a framework of kinship and deep respect.
These are not debates. They are circles. They are reckonings. They are beginnings. Community conversations are recorded and shared through Hear & Now.
Beloved Community
Building Beloved Community
It is through storytelling, sharing, and connection that we develop an anti-racist identity and create true kinship.
Everybody As Our Own offers multiple avenues for people to build beloved community: monthly gatherings, Hear & Now conversations, guest blogs, community-building workshops, and shared resources.
Beloved Community Monthly Meetings
Hear & Now Conversation Videos
Guest Blogs
Community Building Workshops
Shared Resources
Beloved Community Monthly Gatherings
Join a monthly community conversation to talk about the racial situation in the community, how people are addressing it, and what participants are feeling about what is going on.
Community Invitation
You are welcome here
Everybody As Our Own is a kinship community with no membership fee and no prerequisite. You are welcome here, as you are, where you are.
All that is asked is a willingness to listen, to learn, and to show up with an open heart.
Community updates
Email registration is not connected yet. We will make sign-up available here when the service is ready.
Founder’s Voice
“We can come together with compassion, empathy and deep respect and remember who we are to one another.”