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OUR COMMITMENT TO EQUITY
Here at the Y, our mission is to create positive community change through relationships by empowering the mind, body, and spirit for ALL. Our Y will continue our journey toward creating a more inclusive and equitable Skagit through education and the amplification of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other voices of color in our community.
Each and every member of our Y family has the opportunity to be a steward of the Y’s mission for inclusion and equity for all. We invite you to join us in our journey as we continue to partner with other nonprofits and our Skagit community to be a socially responsible organization that creates positive change.
Our team has compiled a series of resources for anyone looking to learn more about equity as we all work together to create a stronger community that is welcoming to all.
COVID-19 Vaccine Information
The Y is working to ensure that everyone has equitable access to accurate information about the vaccines and to the vaccines themselves, especially Black and Brown communities, which have been disproportionately affected by the health and economic impacts of the virus.
Visit the vaccine resources link below for links to expert, science-backed information about the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines.
Black History Month at the Y
The history of the YMCA – like the history of the United States – is a story of incremental progress toward greater inclusion and equity for all. As we celebrate Black History Month, we invite you to engaging in opportunities to celebrate and educate yourself on Black history.
NYT Op-Docs: Captain Ed Dwight
The History of Student Activism at HBCUs
What ever happened to Hazel Scott?
The Memory Palace: The House of Lowe
Daryl Davis: Why I, as a black man, attend KKK rallies
How One Man Convinced 200 Ku Klux Klan Members To Give Up Their Robes
RESOURCES
FOR YOUTH:
- Greater Seattle Y Parent Resource Page
- “Your Kids Aren’t Too Young to Talk About Race: Resource Roundup” by Katrina Michie
- Free Read-a-Loud: “Something Happened in Our Town” animation series by Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center
- “Becoming Upended: Teaching and Learning about Race and Racism with Young Children and Their Families” by Kirsten Cole Diandra Verwayne (National Association for the Education of Young Children)
- “15 Classroom Resources for Discussing Racism, Policing, and Protest” by Sarah Schwartz and Madeline Will (Education Week)
- “Middle Eastern and Muslim Stereotypes in Media” TEDxYouth Talk by Eefa Shehzad
- The Roots of Negative Stereotypes (Twin Cities PBS)
- The Trevor Project – Saving LGBTQ Lives
- “What Do You Say to ‘That’s So Gay’ & Other Anti-LGBTQ Comments?” by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and Welcoming Schools
- “15 LGBTQ Affirming Picture Books for Kids” by Rebekah Gienapp
- “Invisible Disabilities: Seeing Others With Compassion” TEDxYouth Talk by Valerie Kosson
FOR ADULTS – Beginning Your Journey:
- Learning Together Free Community Trainings – resources for acknowledging indigenous land and treaties, sustainability and resiliency, intergenerational dialog, equitable teams, social learning leadership, and more.
- A Race is a Nice Thing to Have: A Guide to Being a White Person or Understanding the White Persons in Your Life by Janet E. Helms
- A Conversation on Race: A series of short films about identity in America (The New York Times)
- “The danger of a single story” TED Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- “The difference between being ‘not racist’ and antiracist” TED Talk by Ibram X. Kendi
- Award-Winning New York Times “1619 Project” Interactive Gallery – long-form journalism endeavor which “aims to reframe the county’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the United States’ national narrative.”
- “Anti-Asian Racism Exposes the Model Minority Myth” by Michael W. Kraus & Eunice Eun (Yale Insights)
- Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America – a multi-year national photography project dedicated to photographing over 562 federally recognized tribes in the US, resulting in an unprecedented repository of imagery and oral histories that accurately portrays contemporary Native Americans.
- PFLAG Online Academy
- “4 Ways To Make Your Workplace Equitable For Trans People” by Tuck Woodstock (NPR)
- “I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much” TED Talk by Stella Young
- “What is Cerebral Palsy?” Cerebral Palsy Guide
- Free Bystander Training to End Asian American Harassment
- Help Track Hate – Reporting System for Hate Crimes & Acts of Discrimination
FOR ADULTS – A Deeper Dive:
- YMCA Anti-Racism Resources
- “Anti-racism resources for white people” by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein, a crowd-sourced list of books, articles, podcasts, media and social media accounts to deepen anti-racist work
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
- Audre Lorde – poetry & more
- Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance) – free educational resources to help foster shared learning and reflection for educators, young people, caregivers and all community members, and to provide space to harness collective power and take action.
- Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
- “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates (The Atlantic)
- Ain’t No Makin’ It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood by Jay MacLeod
- “The Real Rosa Parks Story is Better Than the Fairy Tale” by Jeanne Theoharis (The New York Times)
- Mental Health Issues Facing the Black Community (Sunshine Behavioral Health)
- OnlineMBA: The Best Resources for Black Entrepreneurs
- Support Black-Owned Businesses: 181 Places to Start Online