SFCASA Stands with Communities of Color

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June 2, 2020

Dear CASA family,

We would like to take a moment to reflect on the immense violence – expressed through both physical brutality by police and overt racism and hatred from many – that black and brown communities have faced this week. We acknowledge that these events are part of a long history of systemic racism and trauma that deeply impact our colleagues and the families we serve. We also acknowledge that these experiences are part of the daily existence of people of color and that the anxiety, pain, and fear are real and frequent feelings of our colleagues, volunteers, and families we serve.

SFCASA is deeply committed to values of love and justice, and we are dedicated to standing in solidarity with communities of color in Minnesota, Georgia, and Kentucky, throughout the nation and here at home who have experienced the murder of a loved one. We are also committed to continuing to work for racial justice locally and to be a force to dismantle systemic racism in child welfare and juvenile justice. We have a lot of work to do – both within SFCASA and in the system – but we will not back down.

We challenge our collective community to take action to learn more about what it means to be actively anti-racist. A few resources include: We Keep Us Safe by the Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center; the Be An Antiracist collection of San Francisco Public Library titles about racism, #BlackLivesMatter, and pervasiveness of white supremacy; and this article and reading list about how to talk with children and youth about race.

As an organization, we are committing additional time and resources to enhance our training for staff and advocates, recognizing that the majority of youth we serve are people of color. We are publicly declaring our support for the Black Lives Matter movement on our building and providing space for staff to attend protests and process, grieve, or support family members.

We have posted resources for working with youth to our website here.

We look forward to continuing to work shoulder to shoulder with you, and all of our partners to bring change and more equitable systems for a just, more peaceful community for our children.

In community,

SFCASA Staff

Gabriela Bayol

Amy DiBenedetto

Erika Dirkse

Renée Espinoza

Janey Kemp

Paul Knudsen

Christina Lee

Theodora Liebhart

Sue Lockyer

Jackie Moncada

Leticia Palacios

Diane Posner

Mia Ragent

Tory Rennie

Maggie Swanson

Jess Vaughn-Jansen

Maria Vierra

Jessica Yost

Board of Directors

Laura Bisesto

Jeff Davidson

Allison Eisenhardt

Katy Hope

Becca Katz

Elizabeth Foster Lippert

Brynly Llyr

Aji Oliyide

Brooke Papi

Lisa Pearson

Jennifer Young Perlman

Caroline Pham

Katherine Rockwell

Jim SanMarco

Sally Stocks

Jennifer Taylor

Vicki Valandra

Lisa Wu