We are committed to Anti-racism and this is how
Hello Global Works Community,
We are writing today to express solidarity with those fighting for racial justice and to acknowledge our humble role in working to create positive change. The Black Lives Matter uprisings have called for a reckoning on inequity and racial justice that is long past due. We have looked out at the world around us and are finally asking in new and nuanced ways the important question: what is our role in creating a better, antiracist world?
We believe that Black Lives Matter. We believe that color-blindness is not enough. As Angela Davis said famously, “It is not enough to be not racist, you have to be antiracist.” While the conversation feels new and uncomfortable in many ways for many of us, we also realize that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. So many people in our communities have been aware, have been deeply affected every day of their lives, and have been actively working to dismantle systems steeped in racism and oppression. We don’t have to start from scratch, we can learn from our partners and we can support their work. We can make it our work too.
We are taking steps at Global Works now.
We acknowledge that travel is not always accessible or open to BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) communities. We are actively working to change that and expand opportunities for travel.
We support our non-profit partner, Global Works Community Fund (GWCF), to address these questions of access. We fully recognize that travel programs, like Global Works, can be primarily limited to those who have access to economic and social privilege. In 2011, we founded Global Works Community Fund, a 501(c)3 organization, in order to address questions of access in our work. What we didn’t realize at the time was that this was our first step towards addressing antiracism and an attempt at creating truly equitable travel. In 2020, GWCF is run by a dedicated group of mentors, board members, and staff; and the org has a full-fledged mentoring program that focuses on antiracism, equitable practices, and building bridges to opportunities for BIPOC youth to have access to travel. To date, these opportunities have been provided for 33 youth from Denver, CO and Portland, OR.
We commit to doubling down on ways that we can be a greater funding source for Global Works Community Fund. We want to enable our Global Works families to help make these transformative and life changing experiences available to more eager and motivated young leaders, regardless of financial background. We invite you today to support GWCF via donation.
DONATE TO GLOBAL WORKS COMMUNITY FUND
We will seek out, through our Custom Group Travel programs, more partnerships and work to make travel opportunities accessible for a broader range of school populations – public, private, parochial, charter, urban, rural, etc. – so that Global Works travel experiences reach a diverse population of students.
We will invest more resources into forming a home office staff, an advisory board, and a team of trip leaders that better represents our students that are BIPOC. As a predominately white- run company, we understand our epic responsibility in dismantling the heinous legacy of white supremacy.
We pledge to keep learning and growing. We aim to involve our home office staff and our trip leaders in 15 hours of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) training that is specific to our industry. We know that without proper training, experiencing microaggressions can ruin a travel experience and close-minded perspectives are a block to being able to see and experience the world.
We look to the places closest to us to investigate how we can make necessary change in our offices, our backyards, our neighborhoods, and the communities where we live, learn and play. We donate and support Black Lives Matter 5280 in Denver, CO. We encourage you to join us in supporting this organization and others.
We invite conversation. Keep us accountable as we continue to do better. Share your ideas and resources with us at info@globalworkstravel.com and 303-545-2202.
There are so many ways to make an impact, and this is just the start of how we can be an antiracist, multicultural organization. It is our commitment to be effective in dismantling systemic racism, to raise the voices of Black people, and to be a part of the change we need to see in the world. We extend our full solidarity to Black communities. Say their names: George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Elijah McClain, and all those who came before and since who have died at the hands of police brutality.
We have compiled a list of resources (see below) that elevate Black voices and organizations, and that will guide us, here at Global Works, to take actionable steps.
Thank you for your time, your commitment and your big hearts for a better world,
Polly and Fritz Moriarty
Directors, Global Works
More on Global Works Community Fund
We equip confident young leaders with the life-changing experiences they need to believe in themselves and in the impact that they can have in their communities.
Through mentoring, fully-funded service-learning travel, and local community action, we broaden future leaders’ ability to make change where they live, learn and play. Our fellows graduate with a global perspective on leadership and a commitment to civic engagement.
Visit the website to support them today at www.globalworksfund.org
Resources
Thank you to all of the social justice activists who have created these vital resources.
Read
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- Between the World and Me by Ta’Nehisi Coates
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
- Black Faces, White Spaces by Carolyn Finney
- So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin Deangelo
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- Born A Crime by Trevor Noah
- The Emperor Has No Clothes: Teaching About Race And Racism To People Who Don’t Want To Know (Educational Leadership for Social Justice) by Tema Okun
- Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
- I am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin
- Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irvin
- Women, Race, and Class by Angela Davis
- Kadir Nelson’s “Say Their Names”
Watch
- I am Not Your Negro
- Just Mercy
- 13th
- Selma
- Dear White People
- BlacKKKlansman
- When They See Us
- The Hate U Give
DEI Training/ Education
Follow
- @eji_org
- @theconsciouskid
- @blairimani
- @rachel.cargle
- @naacp
- @empressrulesequity
- @thegrio
- @blackfutureslab
Donate and Support