Reparative Futures programme

Reparative Futures is a £10 million programme which aims to tackle racial injustice and inequalities both within the University itself and in the local communities we work with. The programme will run over ten years.

Programme commitment

The Reparative Futures programme combined with the University’s institutional commitment to anti-racism and the work of the University's Anti-Racism Working Group forms the basis of our ongoing efforts to dismantle all forms of racism wherever they exist.

We commit to:

Further research into our history in more recent times and its impact on racism and race-related inequalities.
Contextualising names of buildings across the University.
Sustaining our Black Bristol Scholarships.
Creating a community fund for collaborative initiatives between local groups and the University to support the University’s civic responsibilities.
Make funding available for educational initiatives.
Improving and updating the website to ensure transparency and education.
Engaging with and making our historical records available and accessible to the widest possible public via both physical and digital means through co-created historical research.
Building on, and extending, our work on recruitment, retention and promotion of Black and other racially minoritised staff.
Building on, and extending, our work to eradicate the attainment and awarding gap for Black undergraduate students.
Working in partnership with key stakeholders, locally, nationally and globally to eliminate systemic barriers, particularly in the domains of education, as part of our Reparative Futures programme.

Programme mobilisation phase

It is important that we listen, learn, and seek to understand to be able to build a programme that really matters. And this goes far beyond what we have already done.

How we do this will depend on our agreed priorities when we get the foundations in place.

We have therefore started a mobilisation phase to set up the Reparative Futures programme. This will focus on developing the operational and governance processes we need to make sure we meet the principles we have set for the programme.

The mobilisation phase includes tasks such as:

how we appoint internal and external collaborators and accountability partners
defining frameworks for co-creation
developing a communications and engagement plan
developing equitable funding allocation models, so that funding is shared fairly and impartially.

Accountability roles

In May 2024, we appointed 7 Accountability Partners and 20 Associate Accountability Partners, to support us to build the infrastructure we need to deliver the Reparative Futures programme.

Our Reparative Futures principles

The success of the Reparative Futures programme is rooted in the right foundations to create a fertile ground for change.

Co-creation

We want to work closely with our external partners to develop equitable outcomes that are informed by and shaped with our communities. We recognise that as an institution, we may not always know what is best for all our stakeholders, so partnership working will help address this challenge.

Communication and engagement

We commit to being open and transparent about what and how we are doing, engaging regularly with communities through two-way conversations for feedback.

Dedicated resource

We commit to dedicate resource to support the realisation of this change, recognising the time and expertise of internal and external contributors.

Holding us to account

We will appoint external accountability partners to hold the University to account for its ambition to create transformational change. They will bring their unique perspectives and experiences to challenge the University to do better.

A holistic and cohesive approach

The programme needs to be integrated, rather than compete with the equity, diversity and inclusion activities that we are already doing at every level across the University.

We will therefore take a holistic and cohesive approach, reviewing activities and processes to understand what is working well and highlighting successes. We will identify barriers to help improve equitable partnership working.

Research driven

Further research into our past will help us to contextualise our buildings. Research into our more recent history and its legacies, along with our community partners, will help shape the specific activities of the Reparative Futures programme.  

Delivering the programme

A prioritised action plan and metrics, aligned to the University’s strategic objectives, will be co-created with the accountability partners, internal stakeholders, and shared with our communities.

By working together collaboratively we can be confident that resource is focused in the right areas for maximum impact. This collaborative and inclusive approach will be reflected across the institution.

Checking our progress

Reflecting on our progress will be important for us to achieve transformational change for those with lived experiences of racial injustice. This means reviewing where our focus and funding should remain, and where it might need to change. Community events and our accountability partners will help us in this process.

We will regularly update on our plans, actions, and progress. If you want to be involved in the programme in the future or receive our announcements, you can email us to register your interest: reparative-futures@bristol.ac.uk.

Why the term 'Reparative Futures'

During public consultation, we held an event titled ‘Confronting the past, shaping the future’ at the Rose Green Cricket Ground in Bristol on 11 July 2023.

The event’s title was inspired by Bob Marley’s iconic phrase: 'In this great future, you can’t forget your past.'

We were also inspired by a line in Maya Angelou’s poem 'On the Pulse of Morning' which Professor Leon Tikly quoted during his speech at the event: 'History, despite its wrenching pain Cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.' (Angelou, M. (2015) The Complete Poetry. Virago Press.)

From these, and to acknowledge the impact that public opinion at this event had on our programme’s direction, we adopted the term ‘Reparative Futures’ for our programme name.

In the context of our programme name, the term 'Reparative Futures' means the importance of knowing, understanding, acknowledging and bearing witness to the past to better shape and transform our future. Our ‘Reparative Futures programme’ seeks to create a more just and equitable future free of racial prejudice, through education, research and civic partnership. We will co-create this programme with staff, students, and the community, working together from the beginning to make sure all voices can contribute.

Other uses of 'Reparative Futures'

The phrase 'Reparative Futures' has also been used by other scholars and other projects.

We acknowledge the valuable work of Arathi Sriprakash, David Nally, Kevin Myers, and Pedro Ramos-Pinto (2020) in a paper commissioned for the UNESCO Futures of Education Report. In the paper they discuss and explain the concept of reparative futures.

The term is also used by others in similar ways, including:

The South Africa-based University of the Free State’s Centre for Research on Higher Education and Research project: Reparative Futures which is a project examining the role of higher education in reparative actions.
Habib University in Pakistan use the term ‘towards Reparative Futures’ as part of its pedagogical mission and curricular objectives.

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