Dear Team Read Coaches, Readers, and Families,
Last week was another difficult week, punctuated by the murder of 8 people in Atlanta, including 6 Asian women, and emblematic of hate and violence enabled by white supremacist thinking. These victims were mothers, siblings and offspring of hard-working families now devastated. Violence against Asian Americans is not new in our country – or in our community – and it saddens us to have to acknowledge that once again. As an organization that employs and provides programming for hundreds of Asian American and Pacific Islander students, we stand in solidarity with our teen coaches, our young readers, and our Team Read families. We’re deeply sorry for the trauma and insecurity that such heinous acts generate.
At Team Read, we combat this by striving to create a safe and inclusive space to strengthen reading skills essential to making sense of our world, and providing a place for teens to be their best selves, in community. Team Read seeks to create in our work together a program where everyone feels respected and engaged. We are committed to growing educational equity and implementing anti-racist practices, through our programs and as an organization. Our work is meant to equip, inspire, and educate our young people so they can change our world to become a just, equitable place for all. This means increasing justice and fairness within our own organization and within the larger system in which we play a part.
As a staff, together with our board, we are discussing how to grow with racial equity as a driver. We welcome your thoughts.
Many of you may have seen resources mentioned for support during these trying times, but we want to share a few that we think are particularly pertinent to our work.
Take care, take care of your neighbor, and read on!
Sincerely,
Team Read Staff
Resources