Be Strong Families Board of Directors Meeting Updates in July 2020
The Be Strong Families Board of Directors met on July 20, 2020 to review FY 2020 and to chart the path for FY 2021. The board considered how we would work to advance our strategic plan, especially with regard to anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion and to creating a more just world, one in which individuals’ self-actualization is linked with community and social transformation (thanks to Ahmad Abojaradeh and LifeinMyDays.com for this cognitive frame).
Highlights include:
1. Be Strong Families has officially endorsed the NAEYC People of Color Caucus’ Manifesto Demanding the End of Exploitation of Black and Brown Women in Early Childhood Education. We encourage all partners to add your voice to this effort to promote just compensation and provide professional development and leadership opportunities for black and brown women.
2. Be Strong Families has signed on to the Charter for Compassion, a ten-year-old global movement to increase compassion, alleviate suffering, honor the sanctity of every human being with absolute justice, equality, and respect. The charter views compassion as both a path to enlightenment and also at the heart of a just economy and peaceful global community. We are thrilled to join a network of individuals, organizations, and localities committed to enhancing compassion in a myriad of ways and encourage others to sign on! (here)
3. This month, we are beginning our process of self-inquiry and self-analysis re: Be Strong Families' collective and individual mindset on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. Dr. Ramon Pastrano and his team at Impact Lives will be our guides for implementing the Intercultural Development Inventory.
This inventory is a powerful tool and process to move organizations towards the multi-cultural mindset necessary for deconstructing racism (and other oppressive -isms). Each of us—board members, staff, and consultants—will take the inventory and participate in a workshop on understanding the IDI and our collective organizational profile. Each of us will also receive our individual profile and have the opportunity to process it with one of the Impact Lives coaches. Based on where we are, we will determine a course of action including personal and professional development to move us all further on the continuum between mono- and multi-cultural mindset. After 90 days, follow-up individual check-ins will be held with our Impact Lives coaches. We will share our collective process publicly as we were inspired to do so by our friends at Alia.
4. Finally, we are delighted to welcome Samantha Peterson to our Board of Directors. Samantha currently serves as a Title 1 Director with the Harvey school district in the south suburbs of Chicago. She comes to Be Strong Families with 15 years of diverse school leadership-related experience, a proven track record in innovative program development and funding, and with a demonstrated passion for the work we do, already having devoted intensive and extensive hours to assisting with program development for Be Strong Families' Supporting Administrators, Teachers, and Parents with Remote Learning. Samantha's expertise is in engaging underrepresented youth and their families and building school-family-community partnerships to improve student outcomes. Her personal journey growing up in the child welfare system fuels her professional passion.