BANNER: Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) at Be the Change
Be the Change Earth Alliance is committed to taking action to dismantle systems of oppression within our organization, pedagogies, and the education system more broadly and creating systemic change that leads to more justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. BTCEA Board of Directors and staff acknowledge the widespread and historical roots of white supremacy in the environmental movement, and are committed to doing our part to remedy this.
In 2020, we developed an internal JEDI team focused on learning, holding ourselves and the organization accountable, and identifying areas for improvement within both our programs and our organizational policies and practices. We recognize that anti-racism and justice work is constantly evolving and are committed to adapting, learning and growing. We recognize the often unpaid and uncredited work that Black, Indigenous, People of Colour (BIPOC) individuals and communities have done in shaping the environmental movement and many of the resources we use and share in our work at BTCEA. We take accountability for this and endeavor to provide recognition and support where it is due.
Action areas:
- Updating SLC resources to make sure all links and activities are inclusive of individuals from diverse and equity-deserving communities.
- Updating both parts of our Water is Life workshops to 1) Provide more clear local examples of environmental and climate justice; 2) More carefully integrate Indigenous teachings.
- Conducting monthly decolonization team meetings to encourage continued learning and critical discussion about areas for improvement
- Receiving and integrating feedback from our Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Wisdom Circle into our internal policies and external programming
- Creating organizational JEDI policies.
- Relaunching Reclaiming the Environmental Narrative (REN).
ABOUT US
BANNER: Anti-Racism at Be the Change
The BTCEA Board of Directors and staff recognize that embodying anti-racism through all our operations and decolonizing our perspectives personally and organizationally is ongoing work. While we acknowledge that we are early on this journey, we are highly committed to both short- and long-term change.
While BTCEA has highlighted social justice and Indigenous perspectives in our work since our inception, we acknowledge instances where our organization has excluded or failed to highlight marginalized voices, for example, our learning resources have historically been white-centric. We take ownership and responsibility for any potential harm the shortcomings of our programs have caused. While unintentional, these instances are serious and do not represent the beliefs and values of BTCEA. Moving forward, we are committed to dismantling systems of oppression within our organization, our pedagogies, and the education system more broadly.
Our anti-racism work is led by an Internal Team of staff and volunteers that meets regularly to review our progress and identify areas for improvements within both our programs and our internal organizational policies and practices. This work is constantly evolving and we are committed to updating existing programs (e.g., our Student Leadership for Change (SLC) resource library) and creating new programs to reflect our growing understanding of systems of oppression, justice, and anti-racism.
For a brief introduction to some recent initiatives we have begun as small first steps of this larger journey of anti-racism please visit these pages:
