Multicultural BRIDGE
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Staff And Volunteers
    • Board and Advisory Council
    • Partnerships and Coalitions
    • Organization Members
    • Impact
    • Support Us
  • Programs
    • Happiness Toolbox Summer Program >
      • HT2022 Photos
      • HT2021 Photos
      • Happiness Toolbox Sessions
      • HT Bios
    • Community Education >
      • Cultural Competence Community Training
      • Real Talk On Race
    • Youth >
      • Happiness Toolbox >
        • Happiness Toolbox Blog
        • Coloring Pages
        • Happiness Toolbox Photos
      • Real Talk
    • Towards Racial Justice And Equity In the Berkshires >
      • TRJ-South
      • Race Task Force
      • Great Barrington Trust Policy
      • Honoring Du Bois's Life & Legacy >
        • Du Bois Legacy Participants 2022
      • Not In Our County - Berkshires
    • Women To Women >
      • Immigrant Women's Group
      • Professional Support/Community Integration
      • Mindfulness and Movement
    • New Pathways >
      • New Pathways Social Justice Conference 2020 >
        • New Pathways Conference Keynote
        • New Pathways Conference Videos
        • New Pathways 2020 Conference Bios
      • New Pathways Labs
      • New Pathways Talks
      • New Pathways Podcast
      • New Pathways Bios
    • Food Sovereignty & Sustainability >
      • Resource Kits
      • Distribution Sign Up
  • Services
    • Business >
      • Educational Support
      • Workplace Programming
      • State Vendor: Supplier Diversity Program
      • Recruitment
      • Language Access Services
    • Memberships
    • IDEA Institute Trainings
    • Online Training >
      • Virtual Training Hub >
        • Cultural Competence Foundations
      • Inclusive Leadership Cohort >
        • ILC Project Proposals
  • Ways To Give
  • News And Events
    • Mosaic Stories
    • Catalyst.Love.Impact GALA >
      • Gala Photo Gallery
      • Gala Impact
      • Gala Bios
    • Events >
      • Event Photos
    • Announcements
    • In the News
    • Press Releases
    • Photo Gallery
  • Resources
  • Contact
    • Join Our Mailing List
  • Members
    • Member Resources

Summertime Recipe for Justice and Liberation: Community, Work and Collaboration

7/30/2019

 
Dear BRIDGE Community,
We personally want to thank YOU for being in community with us! You all make BRIDGE what it is with love and gusto!
Picture
Picture
Last week, we had a fun dance night and good food connection and intergenerational cross-cultural fun (did I say FUN?) was had by all attending at our pop-up SJIA! I hope you will join us for future celebrations, wings and dancing as we enjoy the rest of our summer.
Picture
We have been busy at BRIDGE this summer in so many ways. We take pride in supporting our clients and some of us are busy making plans with our youth leaders for the 10th-anniversary Happiness Toolbox summer season. We also have made plans to do a two-day pilot for Cheshire and surrounding towns at Luna Búho Farm July 30th and July 31st with a family presentation 4 PM on July 31st. We will be drumming with Otha Day, dancing, practicing literacy through Spanish and Computer coding, reading with local Authors Ty Jackson and JV Hampton VanSant, and learning our local Berkshire history through the legends of Dr. Du Bois, Laura Ingersoll, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth and Mumbett with Ms. Stephanie Wright. We will be enjoying the athlete, artist, naturalist, and dancer in all of us. Several youth leaders are sharing their talents, passions and favorite BRIDGE lessons with the program. Our themes are empathy, perseverance, and grit! We will explore the history of the land we use today... And need I say more!

Picture

"All art is a kind of confession,
more or less oblique.
All artists, if they are to survive,
are forced, at last, to tell the whole story;
to vomit the anguish up"


— James Baldwin



For you to get a sense of what we have been up to so far this season, please see the editorial strand, regarding a recent racially biased incident at Jacob’s Pillow and our two collaborative responses from accountability of TRJ and also the CEO letter with John Bissell (Greylock Federal Credit Union) and Peter Taylor (Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation).

As we live and practice true to our mission, we are advocates for the many marginalized voices and also we serve as a resource to institutions and organizations committed to change. We work towards cultural and systemic policy change. 

Last week, we also shared a successful Bias Awareness Training hosted by NPC Berkshires and we are going in for part two on Thursday. We were happy to welcome several participants from Lee bank, Berkshire Community College, Public Health Institute, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, BRIDGE, Berkshire Natural Resources Council, and more to the session. Thanks to NPC director and founder, Liana Toscanini, for the invitation and soliciting and publishing the piece on Colorblindness in the latest Connections magazine.
Picture
We celebrated with our sister organization WAM on their tenth anniversary as they announced their beneficiaries, Women of Color Giving Circle and Harmony Homestead, who were collectively nominated and chosen among WAM and BRIDGE staff! Happy birthday, WAM! Can’t wait for Pipeline—see the calendar to get your tickets!
Picture
Picture
Lastly, we had such fun at the Gather-In at Durant Park and also look forward to our Day Of Action with Yo Yo Ma and several community organizations in Pittsfield. Learn more here.

Newsflash: summer hEartbeat Match

We have a new Summer Challenge grant this summer in honor of the 10th anniversary of two of our core programs, Women to Women and Happiness Toolbox. Woo hoo!

Grace Church and the Ellis family (Tim, Lily and Levi of TRJ) have joined forces to offer $7,000 towards these two programs annual and celebration costs. It is time as you read for you to double your contribution by giving now because they have jointly issued the Heartbeat Match Challenge. Good news—we are more than halfway there at $3856! Make your donation here!

Reflection Opportunity

We love to return to Adrienne Maree Brown to reflect on inspiring folks in our networks to catalyze change by living an authentic life—the practice of reflection is a helpful step. Pause reflect and then get back to doing! 

Do you already know that your existence--who and how you are--is in and of itself a contribution to the people and place around you? Not after or because you do some particular thing, but simply the miracle of your life. And that the people around you, and the place(s), have contributions as well? Do you understand that your quality of life and your survival are tied to how authentic and generous the connections are between you and the people and place you live with and in?

Are you actively practicing generosity and vulnerability in order to make the connections between you and others clear, open, available, durable? Generosity here means giving of what you have without strings or expectations attached. Vulnerability means showing your needs. - adrienne maree brown
Stay in touch with us! Thank you for all you do!

Warmly,
Gwendolyn VanSant


Comments are closed.

    Archives

    January 2025
    December 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    June 2024
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    February 2023
    November 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    November 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Contact Us

Stay Connected
via Our Newsletter

SUPPORT US
Donate
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Staff And Volunteers
    • Board and Advisory Council
    • Partnerships and Coalitions
    • Organization Members
    • Impact
    • Support Us
  • Programs
    • Happiness Toolbox Summer Program >
      • HT2022 Photos
      • HT2021 Photos
      • Happiness Toolbox Sessions
      • HT Bios
    • Community Education >
      • Cultural Competence Community Training
      • Real Talk On Race
    • Youth >
      • Happiness Toolbox >
        • Happiness Toolbox Blog
        • Coloring Pages
        • Happiness Toolbox Photos
      • Real Talk
    • Towards Racial Justice And Equity In the Berkshires >
      • TRJ-South
      • Race Task Force
      • Great Barrington Trust Policy
      • Honoring Du Bois's Life & Legacy >
        • Du Bois Legacy Participants 2022
      • Not In Our County - Berkshires
    • Women To Women >
      • Immigrant Women's Group
      • Professional Support/Community Integration
      • Mindfulness and Movement
    • New Pathways >
      • New Pathways Social Justice Conference 2020 >
        • New Pathways Conference Keynote
        • New Pathways Conference Videos
        • New Pathways 2020 Conference Bios
      • New Pathways Labs
      • New Pathways Talks
      • New Pathways Podcast
      • New Pathways Bios
    • Food Sovereignty & Sustainability >
      • Resource Kits
      • Distribution Sign Up
  • Services
    • Business >
      • Educational Support
      • Workplace Programming
      • State Vendor: Supplier Diversity Program
      • Recruitment
      • Language Access Services
    • Memberships
    • IDEA Institute Trainings
    • Online Training >
      • Virtual Training Hub >
        • Cultural Competence Foundations
      • Inclusive Leadership Cohort >
        • ILC Project Proposals
  • Ways To Give
  • News And Events
    • Mosaic Stories
    • Catalyst.Love.Impact GALA >
      • Gala Photo Gallery
      • Gala Impact
      • Gala Bios
    • Events >
      • Event Photos
    • Announcements
    • In the News
    • Press Releases
    • Photo Gallery
  • Resources
  • Contact
    • Join Our Mailing List
  • Members
    • Member Resources