Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee (DEI)
Out of One, Many People
Contact: Gwen Higgins, Chair Board.aauw.poughkeepsie@gmail.com
At this moment in time, we sense a heightened openness in our community – a strengthened commitment to build the diversity of our Branch, and support diverse populations in our immediate area and beyond.
Rockland County AAUW Diversity Brunch
On February 26, Poughkeepsie AAUW co-sponsored a virtual brunch with AAUW-Rockland. It was their 26th Annual Diversity Brunch. A number of our members joined with Rockland for an outstanding presentation by Roger Glass who shared a wealth of family history that needs to be treasured and enjoyed by others. The women in his family were early leaders in the fight for women’s right to vote and other important issues of the day. He made us aware of the heroines residing in our own communities.
Please enjoy the recording of this event which was hosted by Suzanne Young-Mercer, Chair, DEI AAUW Rockland
Diversity Brunch
Join Project: Public Policy and DEI
CALLING ALL CRAFTY WOMEN!
Recently, with Board approval, Public Policy and DEI offered support to the DAY ONE Learning Communities initiative that eventually will be housed in the new building that will replace the former downtown Poughkeepsie YMCA. DAY ONE has chosen Poughkeepsie to begin its project of providing training for child care teachers in best practices, ensuring that their salaries are fair and equitable, and offering child care facilities as well. Safe, affordable child care allows women the opportunity to choose to work outside the home knowing their young children are safe and well taken care of.
Through our Leading to Reading initiative we have provided packages of books for pre-school age children that DAY ONE will distribute in the summer at Eastman Park. Click on the picture below and you will find craft project ideas that they could use with their children right now.
If you would like to make one or more of these items, please contact Celia Serotsky or Betty Harrel and we’ll get back to you with more details. We hope you can help provide the children with some of these fun craft items. Use the email board.aauw.poughkeepsie@gmail.com
Select picture for craft suggestions.
Podcast of Interest
Seeing White
This is a series of podcasts that were discussed this fall by AAUW members led by Diane Jablonski. If you have not listened to this series please do so during this month.
the link to the podcast or text, gives a nice summary of each episode and the information covered beginning with when and how did the term “racism” come about, and then going back to colonial America and moving forward from there. Below is a high-level summary of the show.
- Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Some of this feels new, but in truth it’s an old story.
- Why? Where did the notion of “whiteness” come from? What does it mean? What is whiteness for?
- “Scene on Radio” host and producer John Biewen took a deep dive into these questions, along with an array of leading scholars and regular guest Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika, in this fourteen-part documentary series, released between February and August 2017.
I surmise that some might wonder why the ADINKA image might be selected as the symbol for a committee named “Diversity and Inclusion.” The legend reflects the self-destruction that results from looking out for only one’s own interests, and desires, rejecting the benefits of cooperation. What a depressing thought! We adopt this image so that we are reminded to reach out in every direction to find and be allies. We understand the endless benefits of including a wide variety of others among us. For with a variety of associates come unlimited abilities, experiences and potentials. It is they who have the power to make our lives the adventures they are supposed to be. By educating ourselves through a wide range of contacts with those who are different from ourselves, various cultural awareness, different ideas and personal challenges, we grow. We can then become informed enough to wisely influence others. We develop ourselves as forever learners, community builders and connectors. It is through these relationships and connections that we create the empathy which gives us the courage to become allies.
AAUW is a community of allies for women of all types. Join the effort to affirm our appreciation of all human kind. We can take the opportunity go through experiences that expand our personal worlds. We can influence our expanding world for the common good. The entertaining and educational activities sponsored by this committee, we hope, will give you a chance to bond with each other as we provide new perspectives through other’s experiences. The ADINKA image could be seen in our minds as cooperating crocodiles rather than competing. (Gwen Higgins)
Anti-racist Starter Kit
and
The Black Experience Reading ListPoughkeepsie AAUW and Gwen Higgins would like to share with you some references in light of the current Social Justice movements.
Click on the raised hands or the link.
Previous events have been archived and are available from the branch historian.
