Marching Into July

Dear all:

I hope you have been enjoying Late Spring and Early Summer weather. We have been busy here this month. Florence and Julianne kicked off our Real Talk youth training for our summer mentors and youth workers! We covered diversity and justice issues, positive education, mindfulness, neurodevelopment, character strengths and goal setting with experts within and new to our BRIDGE ecosystem. It was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate Juneteenth as an organizing member of the Collaborative with NAACP. Florence and Stephanie brought our Cultural and youth activities like Strawberry Soda and African clothed stress balls to the table!

Our Foundations Fridays are ready this Fall starting this upcoming Friday in 2 hr blocks from 9 AM -11AM. Join our volunteers, staff, BRIDGE clients and partners in this session. We ask that everyone that engages with BRIDGE prioritize their cultural competence training. You can register below and see us if you need any tuition waivers.

Please engage with our monthly racial justice meetings as we talk, learn and engage from a community and cultural humility perspective. A core practice is calling each other in to accountability around inclusive and collective leadership. There is no time like now to assess our resources of time and energy and focus. The reversal of Roe v. Wade reminds us of that. If you missed the Tyringham for Racial Justice panel with leaders, Shirley Edgerton, Dennis Powell, Leticia Haynes and AJ Enchill, Please find my moderator remarks here and the article here.

Many of you know BRIDGE has been working at the intersection of gender and race issues crossing climate resilience and COVID. We are happy to announce a two year grant with MOVA to increase our capacity to meet the needs of women facing violence at all levels (workplace, race-based & domestic) and we also continue to educate around COVID awareness for all of our vulnerable communities.

Lastly, we are in year 3 of mutual aid. Please know we have secured land access for food sovereignty and economic stability for historically marginalized or vulnerable groups with limited or no access to land. We have partnered with World Farmers and Great Barrington Fairgrounds and are offering up the Solidarity Farm as land for community members to make use of it with TA in starting a business selling crops or feeding their communities. In addition we have raised beds in our community garden and we will welcome you to celebrate in the Fall what we have built in our Solidarity Garden space at the Fairgrounds! So many hands and farmers across generations have made this possible! Keep an eye out in our New Pathways portal and our social media channels as we begin to shout out our partners and share progress. Already we are harvesting green beans, chamomile, mustard greens, collard greens, and radishes!

In hope and solidarity,
Gwendolyn

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FOUNDATION FRIDAYS

• July 8, 2022
• Location: Zoom
• Please join us if you are a volunteer, staff, consultant, or in BRIDGE community of clients or members.
• Register here: https://forms.clickup.com/36022488/f/12ba6r-11387/TCHZYFUXI1ED8MS3Q

EXECUTIVE IDEA LEADERSHIP TRAINING

• Postponed to September
• 2nd and 4th Tuesdays from 2-4 PM
• Zoom or BRIDGE Office Conference Room
• Due to challenges with COVID for many, we have postponed the Exec Leadership Training and we will deliver this program over 8 weeks in 2 hour blocks on Tuesdays in the Fall! This gives time to complete or refresh your Foundations and Systems Training.

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HAPPINESS TOOLBOX

• Please consider sponsoring a summer scholarship! Email us if you can support summer learning and fun!

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Monthly Meetings

• Race Task Force
  • Date: July 11, 2022
  • Location-Hybrid Ralph J. Froio Senior Center 330 North St, Pittsfield
  • Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0pdOuurT4uHt2CLAOOMP8xHqOylsjxO4Zq
  • Topic: We will have our working groups and update on work and BRIDGE will share its movement building. We also will discuss the upcoming elections and forums.

• TRJ
  • Date: July 7, 2022
  • Location
  • Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0vcOmhrT8tEt1MV9cANuNVzelQDd6JXCdl
  • Topic - Accountability
    • Our TRJ Topic is accountability. It is a core practice in justice work as well as in any role where you hold responsibilities to yourself and your values and your institutions its mission, purpose and values. BRIDGE also employs it as a matter of governance. This session will run as a learning workshop for all engaged in Racial Justice Work. We will employ an equity analysis and review models of collective, inclusive leadership and discuss the Elizabeth Freeman Statue and other key initiatives in our community.
• Conscious Masculinity With TRJ
  • Date: July 28, 2022 @7 PM
  • We are looking for new facilitators and for increased engagement as we move through third-quarter transitions! In light of the reversal of Roe v. Wade and the challenges women leaders face locally and regionally across racial identity, this is an important aspect of our accountability work!

• Women-to-Women.
  • We will have our regularly scheduled empowerment and learning W2W meetings. Silvia has been away on leave and will share topics throughout the month. Please send an email to [email protected] if you would like to join the mailing list for this group.
  • Dates:
    • Jul 7 @TRJ: We will have designated Spanish-speaking bilingual community members and breakout groups in Spanish. The main space will be in English with a Summary in Spanish
    • Jul 14: tbd
    • Jul 21: We will look to have an in-person gathering at the Solidarity Garden. Weather permitting!
    • Jul 28 tbd