Girls Write Now stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, and the intersectional coalition of artists, activists and organizations fighting for justice. For over two decades, we have dedicated our mission to breaking down the barriers of race and poverty to elevate the voices of girls and gender nonconforming youth who are too often not heard—or worse, silenced.
And we still have more work to do. At Girls Write Now, we believe it is our responsibility to be leaders in not only responding to the demand for racial justice but to making those demands and modeling best practices; and to not only supporting the next generation in their struggles for racial justice but to ensuring they are well equipped to fight for it themselves.
Starting in November 2020, we mount a holistic racial justice strategic planning process that involves stakeholders across and around the community to explore all aspects of the organization through education, conversation, and decision-making. We will combine the rich perspectives and experiences of our wide-ranging constituents with racial justice experts, applying tested tools and approaches, who have the emotional intelligence and deftness necessary to meet everyone wherever they are on the continuum of awareness and engagement.
Different stakeholders will have different priorities, and different experts will present different methodologies. This process allows space for as many views and approaches as is feasible. This is an iterative process and we expect to make modifications as we go.
The process is designed to allow for Girls Write Now to responsibly take action where needed, even to experiment, while applying lessons learned as we go. We are already engaged in many activities that are rooted in racial justice, from our curriculum development to our speaker/teaching artist roster, to mentor/mentee “Pods”, Wellness Wednesdays, Community Chats, the Mentor Diversity Committee, and much more. This strategic planning process will apply a critical lens and give us a new perspective on all of this and more.
Our work will take place in three dovetailing stages:
Stage I: Planning to Plan (Nov-Dec 2020)
Stage II: Conducting Trainings & Professional/Leadership Development (Dec 2020-June 2021)
Stage III: Setting Organizational Strategic Priorities & Initiatives (Jan-Dec 2021)