As a statewide organization built to empower and support all Vermont families of children and youth with disabilities and special health needs, we want to add our family voices to the cries for racial justice and equity that have been heard around the world since the brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis policemen a little over a week ago. Black lives do matter. We are compelled not just to say those words, but to understand their meaning, and the movement that is happening around them.
At VFN, we are committed to doing our part—as individuals, and as a family support and advocacy organization—to change the story of inequity and injustice that is the lived experience of too many families of color, including here in Vermont. We are listening. We are learning how to be better, so we can do better in our efforts to lift all family voices for positive change and help to create more inclusive communities throughout our state.
We are utilizing our organizational, community, state, and national partnerships to challenge ourselves to explore implicit bias and racial inequity on a deeper level, and to do all that we can to make a difference, personally, and professionally. We hope that you, too, will be moved by the powerful imagery of this week’s protests and George Floyd’s grieving family as they called for justice at his funeral yesterday. We all have a role to play in making the world a better place for everyone. As Dr. Martin Luther King said, “The time is always right to do what is right.” We can’t think of a better time than now.
Something to get you started:
Racism — And Anti-Racism — In Vermont
By JANE LINDHOLM & MATTHEW F. SMITH • JUN 2, 2020
48:54
Protests erupted across the country over the killing of George Floyd in police custody one week ago. Calls for justice and the overthrowing of systemic racism in the U.S. echoed from Burlington to Seattle. In this hour, we talk about race, racism and anti-racism in Vermont, and ways Vermonters can support change amid a national crisis.
Pam McCarthy, M.Ed.
CEO / President