We are in times we have never seen before and at BRIDGE we are grateful for our community. We are grateful for the practice we have built together to tackle barriers and build resilient connections. Those connections are holding strong and true over the last few weeks whether it be over Zoom or a conference call.
​
We have been busy within our network of mutual aid, ie. cooperation for the sake of the common good, among our donors, activists, constituents, stakeholders and employees. Our focus has been preparedness and lifting up our community while supporting each other in mobilizing within and among ourselves. We of course are reaching to those institutions locally, statewide, and federally that can support but/AND we know our strength is in the care shown for your neighbors and family and then trust in that ripple effect.

Connect with BRIDGE on Instagram!
Tune in with BRIDGE! We have storytime with JV providing a BRIDGE message for youngsters at noontime during the Week on Instagram. Check these out and tell a friend! JV will be reading some original books and some tried and true authors we love at BRIDGE!

*PROGRAM POSTPONED: Please note (due to COVID-19) we have just received notice today that the Hilton Garden Inn, our host for recording, will be closed ‘til June and also have been asked by participants to postpone the IDEA Institute: Cultural Competence Foundations weekend retreat (tentatively) to May 2020 for our alternative Zoom presentation. We will have some sample programming but the full program will launch in May and the IDEA Institute: Train-the-Trainer will happen at a later date in the Spring. More information to current registrants will be shared shortly! Stay tuned for more digital options over the next month. 

All inquiries and RSVPs are welcome at rsvp@multiculturalbridge.org. 
Thanks for reading our updates and being a part of our community! Thank you to the donors who are supporting us and thank you to the volunteers working alongside us every day! And please send love and appreciation to our staff for their work. 

Onward in community,
Gwendolyn

P.s. Please support our efforts by making a contribution today, join Amazon smile or post a Facebook fundraiser in your network!

Diversity & Inclusion
Corporate Responsibility

​Thank you to the Berkshire Bank team for the support and collaboration! The online trainings and chats have been a nice & fun addition to our repertoire and making our essential work even more accessible!

I know times are hectic at the very least, if not downright scary. Tensions are running high, with people worried about health, loss of work, and the other very present dangers coming up during this crisis. 

We at BRIDGE want you to know that we are here for you and your family! I, specifically, wanted to do something nice for those with youngsters suddenly stuck at home. So, starting on Monday, at 1:00 pm, I will be reading some of our favorite books on Instagram Live. We will be going through some of our favorites from various writers, including Brad Meltzer, Monica Sheehan, Dawn Casey, Claire Rudolph Murphy, and yours truly!
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If you would like to tune in to that, please click here, and give us a follow. We are @MulticulturalBRIDGEReads on Instagram.

If you’re adjusting to home educational programs, I have some recommendations for things to consider. If you’re looking to help your young people engage in learning activities, check out Kiwico, a company dedicated to making science fun to learn for young people. ​

When I was younger, nothing was more exciting than getting to build things and explore how the world works. I was totally a science kid, and I’m sure some of you parents were too. I also know, and parents can back me up on this part, that one of the most fun times you can have with your kid is helping them put together a cool project. Have fun and turn your home into a mini science fair! Sounds fun, right? Kiwico has a bunch of free projects on their resources page. Click here to check those out.

Also, here's some context for this next recommendation: At our summer program, Happiness Toolbox, we focus on our character strengths. If you want to figure out what your character strengths are, click here to visit the VIA Character Institute Strength Survey. ​

That’s all for me today! Stay safe out there, and remember to wash your hands. We will be alright, and we will get through this. Try to stay positive, and don’t forget to find things that make you smile.
I will talk to you all again soon! 
Best wishes,
JV Hampton-VanSant

PS: Stay tuned! I'll be back with more activities and games soon. Stay safe out there!!~

PPS: Parents, here is an uplifting video: on Character Strengths.

Dear BRIDGE Community:

As we all have been learning and preparing our community and families to respond to the pandemic, COVID-19, I can’t help reflect and remind us that we have this opportunity right now where we have to show real care and compassion in our community.

“Staying home” may be daunting for some. It may mean loss of wages/income, loss of community, loss of childcare and/or loss of family visits. For some it may be a matter of life and death if YOU decide to stay home. It is not an act of fear to self-quarantine if you have the privilege to do so, it may mean the ultimate act of kindness and care. Those of us that have to go out for the various reasons, to keep our communities and families operating and running, to care for those who need care and/or to meet essential needs we have to show care and embodied attention we may have been less attentive to. All of these things are learning opportunities for us. It is an opportunity for mindfulness. We touch our face 350 times a day by habit so try to have a tissue or kerchief on hand. Use soap and water to wash hands. Sanitize keyboards, handles and door knobs regularly.

Some of our colleagues invited me to share the message that we should not only be sending love to those worried about safety and security -- whether it be financial, emotional, psychological and/or otherwise health-related --but just as much we should challenge ourselves to be sending love to COVID-19. (That’s a twist, right?) We are listening to and learning from her as much we are meant to do the same from our Mother Earth and her lessons. Honor our humanity, honor our connectedness and honor our planet. We are all each other’s keeper. 

In wishing us all well-being, I have included helpful links below that we have reviewed with members of our BRIDGE family that work in community health and public health as professionals on a local and national level as well as other trusted advisors. Dr. Setti  as an MD in community health who serves on our board and Lily Swartz as a trusted advisor in public health communications have been a major support to our operations team. I hope these articles are ones that help you have conversations with family, colleagues and community members of all ages which in turn can help you prepare well. Several of these update regularly!

National and Massachusetts news and updated on COVID-19:

• https://www.cdc.gov
• https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses
• https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcboston.com/news/local/gov-baker-to-update-public-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/2089690/%3famp?fbclid=IwAR1jaqxv1wl2zxKZ3mPm601LmHkvdvyre1lM1nMN-NE58d0MIIfvA9OJPVY
• https://www.mass.gov/info-details/frequently-asked-questions-about-covid-19

Coronavirus Resources for understanding:

• https://www.flattenthecurve.com
• English: https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca
• Spanish: https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-por-qué-debemos-actuar-ya-93079c61e200
• French: https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-agissez-aujourdhui-2bd1dc7838f6

Reading with an impact and equity analysis:
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/preparing-for-coronavirus-to-strike-the-u-s
https://afsp.org/taking-care-of-your-mental-health-in-the-face-of-uncertainty/

For youth and family conversations: 

• https://gozen.com/coronavirus-anxiety/?fbclid=IwAR35wVdUqwVZTnPyOfi1FjGL3dK1MtSIQnLp4lyXpwC-8fW--XnoGGwMwdg.   
• https://www.mic.com/p/what-does-containment-of-coronavirus-actually-mean-at-this-point-22604165

As many of you have noted, we have postponed most large convenings that we have been a part of as host, co-host or have organized. Most near future meetings we will be conducting remotely at BRIDGE per Massachusetts and Berkshire public health guidelines.

Shortly, our trainings will be available remotely accompanied by video chats and webinars. Next week, I will do my fourth Twitter Chat on having an equity and privilege analysis on COVID-19 as we take care of ourselves, our families and each other in community. Stay tuned for more opportunities to engage with BRIDGE.

We are continuing with the ACLU - MA and community leaders convening over Zoom on Tuesday for the program What A Difference A DA makes. (March 17th!) Also we plan to move ahead with future programming as much as we can thinking about access for our stakeholders.

IDEA Institute launches at BRIDGE. (Thanks to support of Moonlight Mile Family Fund and our Moonlight Mile Circle along with the pending Lennox Foundation support, we are finally here!)

Our train-the-trainer program is launching its pilot in April. We are planning on launching in person if possible but if not we will be broadcasting and recording the session for accessibility. The program will run for 20 hrs in April and 20 hrs in May. All interests in taking our Cultural Competence Foundations core training programs are welcome to join us in April. Please find the links here: IDEA Institute: Cultural Competence Foundations Community (Track 1) Course: runs April 17-19th (20 hrs.) and the pilot train-the-trainer is for BRIDGE staff and our business members of the Impact and Changemaker Circles as we build capacity in our networks! the IDEA Institute: Train-the-Trainer (Track 2) Course - 40 hrs: dates are April 16-19th and May 21-24th. Please email institute@multiculturalbridge.org for inquiries.

We have some exciting staff transitions taking place right now! As you know Dr. Williams served as our Senior Education and Engagement Director (SEED.) She has been recruited for the University of Pittsburgh as the Vice President of Academic Affairs and will stay on remotely as our Special Projects Director with occasional visits and projects in the Berkshires over this year and beyond. We had a wonderful year of collaborating with Dr. Emily Williams internally and have benefited greatly from her professionalism and expertise. We have several projects underway and are excited to continue to work together in the future. Silvia Soria has served as our bilingual facilitator and is moving in to the Women to Women Coordinator role as programs and opportunities grow for that program. Elie Yeo has been serving as our Business and Finance Fellow and is now officially a part of our staff as our Business and Finance Coordinator. 

Here is another reflection for our looking ahead that I appreciated:
“Mercury retrograde, in general, is great for the re-’s: redo, revise, revisit, rethink, refocus, etc. Release and revamp!” And also as our newest board member reminded us on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day that we have another set of “re-s”,  Rev. Sloan Letman IV calls us to take note: it is time to “renew, (re)build and restore!”

We are connected to families facing delayed seasonal jobs already, missing work due to no childcare or missing paid programing. We have several staff that double as caregivers for their elder parents or family members that are auto immune compromised as many of our neighbors do. We are looking to organize resources to support these families.

If you can make a donation, please mark it COVID-19: W2W for immigrant women and families, COVID-19: TRJ&E for Racial justice for any racial equity issues attached to this virus or COVID-19: HT for our Happiness Toolbox Families or in the memo/comments on PayPal please write COVID-19 Aide. And please send us an email at adminsupport@multiculturalbridge.org letting us know you have done so and how you would like your support applied. Also, BRIDGE itself could use support to help our team working remotely with equipment and technology enhancements. Let us know if you can help! COVID-19: Capacity. You can contact us here: https://www.multiculturalbridge.org/support-us.html.

Additionally, we may need support for individuals and families that need food/supplies picked up and dropped off. Please email Rsvp@multiculturalbridge.org if you can support food & supply delivery. In the title of the email, please include the words Rideshare: Meals/Supplies. We are connected to our local Emergency Preparedness teams and networked across the county and so, if there are needs you do not see here, please let us know and we can connect you to the right resources.

And finally I leave you with one of my favorite Kripalu Let Your Yoga Dance (LYYD)  and Certificate in Positive Psychology (CIPP) treasures, this metta of lovingkindness: 

May I be filled with lovingkindness.
May I be safe from inner and outer dangers.
May I be well in body and mind.
May I be at ease and happy.
May you be filled with lovingkindness.
May you be safe from inner and outer dangers.
May you be well in body and mind.
May you be at ease and happy. ~ Lovingkindness meditation


Stay well- I have been enjoying fire cider shots and about to make my own this week!
Warmly,
Gwendolyn VanSant

Dear BRIDGE Supporters,
First, we want to thank our clients, partners, sponsors, volunteers and board members for supporting our organization and our racial justice campaigns! Without you, we could not provide education and support the way we have!

“As you live, believe in Life! Always human beings will live and progress to greater, broader and fuller life.” says Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois.

“Life’s most persistent question is what are you doing for others,” reminds Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We want to share the videos and articles regarding the Town’s third annual W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Festival. It is a result of decades of tireless work to honor our Berkshire native activist and scholar! Du Bois was the first Black man to receive a PhD from Harvard and initiated so many more civil rights actions. Great Barrington had a weekend Festival with guests from Atlanta, St. Croix and New Jersey join us with Dr. Du Bois’ great-grandson Jeffrey Peck. BRIDGE was a proud sponsor and partner and we are grateful to our network of volunteers for helping the Festival be a success! Thank you to Dr. Emily Williams, BRIDGE Senior Education and Engagement Director, and Town of Great Barrington Du Bois Legacy Committee member for inviting her colleagues to lift up the enduring legacy of Dr. Du Bois! 

We gave out 200+ copies of Souls of Black Folk with the introduction by Ibram Kendi for the 150th-anniversary edition. And thank you to Donna Gouger and Dr. MaryNell Morgan for joining Bob Paynter and our Legacy Committee for a musical book club uplifting Dr. Du Bois!

See selected news coverage:

• WAMC: Great Barrington Holding Third Annual Du Bois Birthday Celebration
• SF Examiner: Zaccho Dance Theatre takes on race, identity, injustice

Tanekwah Hinds, Racial Justice Community Advocate at the ACLU of Massachusetts,  works with Rahsaan Hall, the Director of the Racial Justice Program, to create partnerships and advocacy opportunities for communities of color. Their campaign What a Difference a DA Makes is a public education campaign that seeks to highlight the key role of district attorneys in criminal justice reform. Through this campaign, ACLU is organizing community convenings across the state to gather community leaders who support individuals disproportionately affected by the criminal legal system.

The purpose of the event is to provide a space for leaders to network, identify challenges of their respective communities, and create actionable steps for District Attorney accountability and public education. BRIDGE and the Race Task Force are thrilled to partner and to co-organize the Berkshire County Community Convening on March 17 6-8pm at the Berkshire Athenaeum, 1 Wendell Avenue, Pittsfield, MA 01201. 

March 14th, join Yuyi Morales at Norman Rockwell Museum for a fun afternoon with BRIDGE and other Berkshire residents.

IDEA Institute:
We are happy to host the IDEA Institute @ BRIDGE for our Train-the-Trainer in Cultural Competence and Facilitation. If you have benefited from BRIDGE training and would like to share that experience with your workplace and communities and/or join the BRIDGE facilitation team, fill out this application here. And save the dates!

We want to thank Jacob's Pillow for partnering with BRIDGE for the Town of Great Barrington Du Bois Festival. Between Me and the Other World captured Du Bois double consciousness. We were joined by activists and scholars and hundreds of Berkshire residents for dance and dialogue over the Du Bois Legacy Festival due to a strong partnership with the Pillow and a generous sponsorship from Berkshire Bank Foundation.

​10:30 - 12:30 Du Bois Legacy Tour: Mason Library Talk, W. E. B. Du Bois: An Enduring Educational Legacy, Randy Weinstein, Barbara Dean, and Leah Reed followed by Great Barrington Du Bois Legacy Walk (Du Bois Center, Family Graveyard Site and Du Bois Boyhood Site)
1:30-4:30pm “The Souls of Black Folk”: Celebrating the Songs, Poems, and Text Drawn from W. E. B. Du Bois,  “Poems and Music” from The Souls of Black Folk, 1903 Community Book Club & Discussion, The Souls of Black Folk with Gwendolyn VanSant, Stephanie Wright, Leah Reed, Barbara Dean and Sara Mugridge with Musical accompaniment by Donna Gouger, Bob Paynter with Dr. MaryNell Morgan 
***

Performance Installation of Between me and the other world by Zaccho Dance TheatreThe McConnell Theater at the Daniel Arts Center, Bard College at Simon’s Rock6-6:45pm Pre-Show Panel Discussion with Joanna Haigood and MaryNell Morgan, PhD, Frances Jones Sneed, PhD, Whitney Battle Baptiste, PhD and Dennis Powell.  moderated by Gwendolyn VanSant
7-9:30pm Between me and the other world, An immersive performance installation by Zaccho Dance Theatre, choreographed by Joanna Haigood, exploring W. E. B. Du Bois’ seminal work The Souls of Black Folk.
7:30-10:30pm Community Dialogue & Reflections  curated and hosted by Joanna Haigood with community partners from Jacobs Pillow, Du Bois Legacy Committee and BRIDGE


Sunday, February 23, 2020, First Congregational Church, Great BarringtonThe W. E. B. Du Bois Legacy Festival Birthday Program10:30 am “Eyewitness to History” Rev. Sloan Letman IV (guest pastor) with the presiding Rev. Tara Tetzlaff, A Story for All God's Children: "Learning the Truth"
12:00 pm  First Congregational Church Fellowship with Town of Great Barrington Du Bois Legacy Committee, Macedonia Baptist Church and BRIDGE and Festival guests
 ***
1:30 Welcome Town of Great Barrington Selectboard with Selectboard Member, Ed Abrahams and Legacy Committee Vice Chair, Gwendolyn VanSant 
Town of Great Barrington W. E. B. Du Bois Legacy Committee Introductions: Stephanie Wright
Prayer & Blessing: Rev. Sloan Letman IV
On Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois: Randy Weinstein, Chair of Legacy Committee with Jeffrey Peck, Du Bois Family representative
Song & Message: Rev. Joallen Forte, Macedonia Baptist Church 
2:00 W. E. B. Du Bois Legacy Lecture Series Presentations: “The Enduring Educational Legacy of W. E. B. Du Bois”
Dr. Emily Allen Williams, Du Bois Legacy Committee Member and Lecture Series Curator
“W. E. B. Du Bois – “The Atlanta University Years”
Speaker: Dr. Danille Taylor, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, Clark Atlanta University
“The Social Theory of W. E. B. Du Bois on Race and Slavery in America”Speaker: Dr. Deirdre Foreman, Associate Director, Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF), Ramapo College of New Jersey
“Creating the Statue of W. E. B. Du Bois at Clark Atlanta University and Recent Historical Sculptures”Speaker: Professor Ayokunle Odeleye, Professor of Art and Sculptor, Kennesaw State University and Odeleye Sculpture Studios
“Double Consciousness and Cultural Creatives: 2020 Vision in the Works of W. E. B. Du Bois and Shirley Graham Du Bois”Speaker: Dr. Chenzira Davis-Kahina, Director, Virgin Islands Caribbean Cultural Center (VICCC), University of the Virgin Islands

Panel Discussion and Q&A moderated by Dr. Karl Johnson, Professor of African American Cultural Studies, Ramapo College of New Jersey
***
4:00 Community Reflections led by Leah Reed & Gwendolyn VanSant
Today’s program presented in partnership with Jacobs Pillow, BRIDGE, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Du Bois Center of Great Barrington, First Congregational Church, Macedonia Baptist Church, and NAACP Berkshire County Branch

Sponsors: Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, BRIDGE, Jacob’s Pillow, Berkshire Bank Foundation, UMASS Libraries- Du Bois Center and Greylock Federal Credit Union
Program ends at 4:30
Thank you Dinner for Festival Guests at Pleasant & Main for Community Sponsors & Partners at 5:30 ( RSVP required. $30/person)

Hi BRIDGE family and Happy New Year once again,

We have had a wonderful start to the year! We will share some January highlights and give you a few sneak peaks on projects and events to come! We appreciate your being a part of our BRIDGE community! With you, we met our fundraising goals and it has allowed us to serve over 50 families throughout our year of training and community organizing on the front end. Behind the scenes, our staff works hard so we can support communities and individuals often overlooked. We offer community, financial assistance, tools to study or work more efficiently, and several other access points for peace, thriving and success! Our work is quiet, steady and persistent and we couldn’t do it without a BRIDGE community of supporters that contribute time, heart and treasure! Thank you for believing in us!

This month we kicked off the year with a TRJ meeting reflecting on our caucus work in affinity groups and what 2020 calls for us to do. We identified and solidified our campaigns and unpacked our accountability towards racial justice and equity. At the Race Task Force January table, we committed our time to hearing about the Census 2020, the ways in which accessibility has been addressed and also what the outcomes and arc of change has been. The representative was responsive to culturally sensitive questions and has followed up with several subsequent meetings, requests and conversations. Many thanks to Mark Sebastiano and Barbara Mahoney for setting this up. Our Race Task Force also presented the idea of working on racial disparities in HomeOwnership as a campaign this year and we are happy to have Greylock Federal Credit Union representative Lisa Trybus and Department of Housing rep Brad Gordon with us in February to continue the conversation and look at advocating with neighbors across the state for Senate Bill 800. Thanks to the subcommittee of AJ Enchill, Tommie Hutto-Blake and Wes Gadson for that initial work!

More Racial Justice and Equity work happened in the heart and soul of the Berkshires for Martin Luther King, Jr. day. We honored him with a Day of Service supporting our local active historically Black Church, the Macedonia Baptist Church in Great Barrington, by laying a whole new kitchen floor. We deep cleaned and spruced up rooms at First Congregational Church used by folks in recovery every day of the week — these rooms housed our summer program this past year and our women to women holiday party this past December. We also sent loads of peace and Valentine’s Cards to Fairview Commons along with more cards to the incarcerated women of Berkshire County who are housed in Chicopee. As a group, volunteers and staff led an arts and poetry corner while listening to the entire I Have a dream speech in our second annual Dream Corner. Later, we had story hour with Brad Meltzer’s Martin Luther King JR. biography and our Happiness Toolbox kids supported our volunteer Tim Likarish in a strength-spotting activity.  We all agreed MLK demonstrated courage and kindness along with so much more! We enjoyed a powerful service for the 22nd annual anniversary of the MLK noon service at First Congregational. In case you missed it, you can listen to Rev. Letman’s sermon, youth testimonials and Rev. Forte and Rev. Tezlaff honor Dr. King and read about it here… in the Berkshire Edge.

To wrap up the day of honoring Dr. King, Stephanie,  Vanessa and Gwendolyn read excerpts of How to be an anti-racist by Ibram Kendi in the Four Freedoms Gallery of Norman Rockwell Musuem in honor of Dr. King’s quest for a just and equitable country….

BRIDGE acknowledged for the Paul J. Aicher Award: As many of you heard we have been identified as a finalist for the Aicher Award and have embarked on a partnership with Everyday Democracy! This is very exciting! You can read about it here in the Berkshire Edge.

For the third annual presentation, the Du Bois Banners are flying again in Great Barrington upholding the legacy of Civil Rights scholar, activist and sociologist Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois in his hometown. The values the town amplifies from his work are Civil Rights, Progressive Education, Economic Justice and Racial Equality (Equity)! We look forward to seeing you at the Town of Great Barrington Legacy Festival. Please follow the work on duboislegacy.com and see the flyer below! BRIDGE is a happy anchor partner with the Town of Great Barrington in all of these efforts. We have an amazing lineup of scholars assembled by Dr. Emily Williams, Senior Engagement and Education Director at BRIDGE and Thasia Giles and Pam Tatge of Jacobs Pillow are returning as key partners to the Festival and bringing dance Joanna Haigood and Zaccho Dance Theatre to do some powerful community work with us. Joanna Haigood crafted this piece 20 years ago when studying at the Pillow and discovering Dr. Du Bois and we are happy to have the Between Me and the Other World here at Simons Rock. Also, we are calling for a community book read of The Souls of Black Folk with Bob Paynter of UMASS with Donna Gouger. As an outcome of the 150th anniversary, the community collected funds to have a Souls of Black Folk book read as challenged by Dr. Frances Jones Sneed and we have a free book for you to join us in reading Souls. On Feb 22nd we will host this dynamic book club of music poetry and text together with guests and local activists and the Great Barrington Legacy Committee! Call 413-394-4305 to arrange to pick up your book or email adminsupport@multiculturalbridge.org. Follow the details at duBoisLegacy.com.

Finally, we want you all to mark March 17th because we have been invited to co-host What A Difference a DA makes with ACLU- MA! We will be inviting our Race Task Force members as partner organizations and have identified other key partners to join this ACLU event. Please save the date for a conversation in the Pittsfield Library, Berkshire Antheneum, in the evening.

BRIDGE has been commissioned by Downtown Pittsfield Inc., Berkshire Bank, and PERC to provide a daylong training session along with 3 follow up lunch ‘ n learns. Starting with a keynote and panel of community leaders we will have a day of workshops on March 20th! 

Our partner, member and client Greylock Federal Credit Union will run an informational Black History Month campaign on their facebook! Enjoy!

We celebrate Black History all year long and February is a month to amplify the longtime contributions of our local and national heroes and scholars. Without them, none of us would be here now. Celebrate and learn something new everyday!

Also our pop up Wing for Justice nights will be coming back soon! We do wings and justice conversations quarterly! Stay tuned and along with this lineup will be game night with some sort of justice theme! We need community, pleasure and fun in our activism because we have a lot of work to do!

There is still time to make your 2019 end of year gift or 2020 pledge! Many of you received my annual year-end letter in US mail but, if you are so far only part of our E-BRIDGE family, I wanted to share my letter here.  

I also want to give a huge thank you to those who joined us Dec 7th for our end of year SJIA launching our appeal - we raised $22,000 in donations and pledges for 2020 that evening! 

Stay tuned for January details for another SJIA! 

And many thanks to our Giving Tuesday supporters who helped us raise $2035 on and offline!

Happy holidays,
Gwendolyn

Hello friends,
With each of you, I want to celebrate community, love, and courage as we close out 2019. For me, I know 2020 will be a year of clarity—clear vision and focus for us all. In order to achieve positive social impact of equity in our communities and organizations, I know that we must continually activate ourselves and others, intentionally reflect, and diligently work with grit and resilience so that we stay activated.

"True learning is the ability to decide upon change and then follow through with clear mind and steady purpose. True learning is the ability to take action." Richard Heckler-Strozzi

So many of you have already leaned in to the urgency of now when it comes to your personal activism here in the Berkshires and beyond by being a part of the BRIDGE community. You, with the rest of our BRIDGE family, have focused on LOVE for one another and a vision of equity and justice for each and every one of us! Thank you!

A few important updates about where BRIDGE is today. In the last year, our team has... 

• Formed or continued to build upon strong learning partnerships with such long-standing community institutions as Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Jacob’s Pillow Festival of Dance, and WAM Theatre (just to name a few). 
• Co-created a coalition of leaders from organizations working on racial justice, including leaders like our local NAACP President, Berkshire Interfaith Organizing leaders, and more.
• Helped to curate a portion of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion conference at Mass. College of Liberal Arts in June 2019- the launch of the Arts Institute 
• Received recognition from the Center for Democracy as a finalist for the Aicher Award 
• Received recognition when our CEO, Gwendolyn VanSant, was named 2019’s “Woman of Achievement” by Berkshire Business and Professional Woman (an event which helped us raise over $12k in career advancement scholarships for women aiming to pursue advanced education.)

And YOU? YOU have also made it possible so that we at BRIDGE have been able to... 

• successfully match a capacity grant we received from an anonymous donor supporting BRIDGE at this critical time in the organization’s growth and development
• continue to meaningfully respond to racial incidents in schools with our culturally competent approach and wherever possible, aim to repair harm and restore belonging
• bring a youth-centric leadership model to County Superintendent called SPIRIT in partnership with the United States Attorney Office and Department of Justice for all participating school districts wanting to empower student activists on issues they deem essential for students safety and thriving. Launching in Central Berkshire this December. 
• hold 10th anniversary celebrations of BRIDGE’s Happiness Toolbox and our “Women to Women” program (the heartbeat of our organization)
• partner with Greylock on their “Women’s Day of Caring Action” during International Women’s Day by sending packed backpacks of care to greet Berkshire women as they return home. We proudly plan to make this an annual event!

As we move into 2020, we are focused on bolstering the humanity of our children and of women here in the Berkshires who face threat of harm and/or experience harm or exclusion every day. 

As we move forward, we aim to embody in practice a systemic, holistic approach to equity and justice for every one of our community members. We know that we not only have the power to touch hearts and minds, but the power and responsibility to shift power, access, and resources here in our community and beyond. We will continue to bring attention to the spaces that need our “love in action.”

“If you know what is love and what is fear, you become aware of the way you communicate to others… Love is not about concepts; love is about action. Love in action can only produce happiness. Fear in action can only produce suffering. The only way to master your love is to practice your love.” -Don Miguel Ruiz

Please join us by choosing the ways in which you can support BRIDGE in 2020. We have outlined them below. Your support and collaboration helps us be the change we want to see in our country and community. Thank you in advance! We will be able to send you your new BRIDGE supporter decal for your car, window or office door.

Serving it forward in peace and justice,
Gwendolyn

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver. ~ Maya Angelou

Women to Women is joined by Walking Our Talk to celebrate the holidays

Fun to have our BRIDGE family join Shirley Edgerton in the Community Read
at Conte Community School.

Hello BRIDGE,
I received nothing but accounts of understanding and praise on today’s training from my officers. In return I shared with them your team’s appreciation of their openness and participation in return as well as an understanding of their dedication and responsibilities to their job... today was certainly a day of pride, satisfaction, and hope for me.  I can’t thank your team enough. I routinely recognize that you are professionals and today you demonstrated that again...thank you for continually trusting and sharing personal experiences with our community.
Jeff Coe
Dalton Police Chief

Click here to read all about those different ways to support.

• ​Join as a member
  
• Sustaining Monthly Donation
  
• BRIDGE’s Reparations Fund
  
• Moonlight Mile Match
  
• BRIDGE’s Endowment Capital Campaign
  
• Sallie VanSant Memorial Fund
  
• Open Doors
  
• Facebook Fundraising campaign 
  
• Amazon Smile 
  

For more information and options, please click here to email us!

BRIDGE, and all of our external operations, will be on Holiday Break from Tuesday, December 24 until Tuesday, December 31 to provide all of us a chance to clear our heads, catch up on our lives and/or families, and recharge our batteries for the new year. Bridge,

Wishing everyone Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year! Celebrate your traditions and ask a friend with different ones for an opportunity to share with one another.

Solstice Reflection: 
“At this time of year, there is a great deal of emphasis placed on birth and the coming of the light. But the Solstice is really Nature’s season of rebalancing between life and death, and new life is never possible without a darkening, a sloughing off.
What makes this season holy is the act of casting off that which, with little to no guarantee, will set us on a new course. Like winter, Nature’s death field closes in on us with its cold and dark promise to claim all that isn’t thriving. It isn’t unusual to resist this process. We may find ourselves trying to prop up the old way, lifeless as it may be, in an attempt to reanimate the ill-fitting, limp, and even destructive, because at least it was familiar. 
But as reluctant as we may be, the holy act of this season is trust. Even as the old things are being cast off, torn away, or leaving of their own accord. Even as disappointment, heartbreak, and fear are rearing up on all sides. Something better for our well-being is marshaling itself below the cold ground. And the sooner we can conclude our old attachments, the sooner the new way will be made visible.” 
-Excerpt from toko-pa blog

And for inspiration this holiday season - watch these videos:

We are again happy to have Dr. Emily Williams on our team as Senior Engagement and Education Director.

Please see her second interview with our CEO, Gwendolyn, and partner for InsideHigherEd with BRIDGE client John Bissell of Greylock Federal Credit Union.

Any feedback, please feel free to contact her at Emily@multiculturalbridge.org:

On Sunday, November 3rd, please come join us at the Doris Duke at Jacobs Pillow to celebrate the Latín American women at BRIDGE in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month 10 years of their stewarding their Latinx community with support and education through our Women to Women program at BRIDGE! We will dance, listen to stories, share delicious food samplings and view cultural artifacts from several countries! Raffle prizes include a Chromebook, beautiful Ecuadorian jewelry brought back just last month and a stay at a Provincetown Cape Cod hotel! Proceeds support the women and children in our BRIDGE Programs! Rsvp@multiculturalbridge.org

This November we are joining WAM in their production of Pipeline and members of our Racial Justice Coalition and BRIDGE Race Task Force join talkbacks after each show. We have the special treat of the actors and directors engaging with our community as well! This is an important play about family, structural bias in education and voice! Get your tickets --

We have honored Dr. Du Bois where we achieved a moment in history we will never forget. Dr. David Levering Lewis wrote to Randy Weinstein “perhaps the battle with Great Barrington is won!” Meaning this global icon of civil rights, pioneer of sociology and founder of NAACP is appreciated in his hometown. Stay tuned for videos, testimonials and more!

We are on book two of Mass MoCA Black Feminist Book Club on Christina Thorpe In the Wake. Join me on Nov 7th—no matter where you are in the book—to have a discussion!

Also on Nov 7th, we are joined by Dr. Tracey Benson for his book launch of Bias in Education after Pipeline at the WAM performance at Shakespeare & Co. Even if you have Pipeline tickets another night join us at 6:30 or 9:00—and if you don’t have tickets join us! No matter the family background this play coupled with this book is essential!

Thank you for being a part of the BRIDGE community!!!

Let’s party! We want to have wings with you for Wings for Justice at Patrick’s Pub in Nov 13th for fun and dialogue (and Wings!) 7 PM. Rsvp@multiculturalbridge.org

And as the year draws to a close we at BRIDGE are forever grateful for your engagement as volunteer, employee, client, partner, member, donor and/or community ally, accomplice & friend! You all make up our BRIDGE community! You make the difference!

Sending you all best wishes for peace and meaning!
Serving it forward,
Gwendolyn 

Follow us on Facebook and check our website for more information!

P.s. Please welcome Dr. Emily Williams, our new team lead, as our Senior Education and Education Director! Gearing up for the work ahead! Blessings to all!!!!