Our Impact
Multicultural BRIDGE helps to improve the lives of community members throughout the Berkshires, and provides consultation and training to groups and businesses across the state and throughout the country. Read stories from Karen and Donna to learn more about our local impact:
Message from Gwendolyn VanSant, Ceo and cofounder
BRIDGE is closing out its tenth year of celebration and celebrating the fruition, as a co-founder, of a vision of what our community needed. In one way it was to close the gaps of services for new immigrants and very specifically value women and women of color’s labor, contribution and value to our community. But in a larger way it was to foster a sense of humanity, justice and interconnectedness.
Within a year of its founding--having been inspired to finally throw the backpack over the wall by a summit in Worcester for the newly elected Governor Patrick in 2008 illustrating what civic engagement required; looked like in its diverse faces, community roles and backgrounds; and why it was everyone’s calling (You know those events, moments, books, that were truly made just for you. That convention was it for me!)--within a year of BRIDGE’s founding we added three essential groups: Children and Youth; Women to Women; and Towards racial Justice and Equity in the Berkshires. These three programs became the core of BRIDGE’s work and what institutionally informs in a mutual loop the cultural competence training design of our organization. At the time, it felt BRIDGE was everywhere and unfocused to everyone watching and curious and really the goal was to encourage folks to see the interconnectedness. The mission fit the five year olds and the 50 year olds. The core learning objectives were the same. The desire for the conversation to be at school, on the playground, at work and at the dinner table was the only pathway to transformation. BRIDGE held 80 multicultural dinners in 4 years to illustrate the diversity of our community, the value of individual stories and the connection when breaking bread together and listening and seeing.
In 2010 Governor Patrick joined our organization with members of his commission like Richard Chacon who at the time was head of Office of Refugees and Immigrants at Shakespeare & Company and really started us off legitimizing the work that had gone in to the founding of the organization. As BRIDGE develops, the purpose and theory of change remain the same and has challenged everyone in our path both internally and externally to unlearn what they know as truth in our history and present day culture throughout society and their own lived experience and relearn it with an overlay of an equitable lens to create a community that can live and thrive safely; where everyone is seen and heard; and where mutual understanding is the objective along the path to required change.
Fostering and stewarding mutual respect and understanding as it states in our founding mission still remains at the core of the approach. And creating a skill set for that level of authentic reciprocity to be applied is our goal across all aspects that make our society. At our core is our purpose to catalyze change and integration and we have been doing so since our inception.
We aren’t telling a new story, for a long, long time Black Feminists and Black Scholars have been telling us; activists have been fighting; journalists have been reporting; human service has been repairing and treating symptoms of oppression; capitalism and violence; some religious organizations have been praying, repairing and trying to reconcile. Feminists have been telling us. Social scientists & psychologists have been researching and have all the data we could ever need. We are just demanding you listen and make change required now! Educate our children, listen to the youth leadership, stand up for human rights, examine race and class by its design and get to work! Hopeless and helpless is an excuse.
BRIDGE is a community organization and there is an invitation to join extended to you right here and right now. It is made up of the folks that have made the choice to engage. It is minority and women led by Commonwealth standards and by our own internal standards. Not to exclude but to make our very best effort to illustrate and unpack accepted cultural norms of leadership and access and lead by example of what it requires to catalyze change working alongside one another.
Our BRIDGE successes, impact and legacy is too great to capture without another decade of deliberate attention and the even still our work is not done. In fact, in some ways it has just begun and that is where I need you. We need you for financial support, we need you educating yourself and your family and friends, and we need your hours of labor, leadership and expertise.
Our workplaces need you to step in and lead courageously.
Our community members and residents here in Berkshire County need your help. And so do the kids in VA and TX; immigrant workers; disabled adults; members of the LGBTQ community and children and black youth, men and women across this country. So do the white youth reaching for guns and the middle-aged white man dieing of addiction. And so do the historically oppressed groups where generation to generation access, humanity, citizenship can be given or taken away.
The stakes are higher and more visible in our society right now. Under this administration, people in my family are under direct attack or threat- my daughter living with autism, my oldest of the lgbtqia community, my daughter living with an autoimmune disease and my biracial son. There definitely is not a free pass to let someone else decide or do the work-- we have to stand up for what we believe in. I invite you in the most demanding and loving way possible to see what is uncomfortable to see, to name harm and its impact on all of us, to educate yourself and lean in to the possibility of your being the last one to make a difference. And trust the rippling impact. I invite you to join, support, speak up and most importantly educate yourself.
It is not enough to raise money or to sit at the table you or your predecessors have been excluded from, it is to change the guest list, the table and the table setting! I ask you to each use the power of your voice, presence and networks every day for justice! And I ask each of you to consider making a personally meaningful contribution to BRIDGE that sustains us moving forward!
BRIDGE is closing out its tenth year of celebration and celebrating the fruition, as a co-founder, of a vision of what our community needed. In one way it was to close the gaps of services for new immigrants and very specifically value women and women of color’s labor, contribution and value to our community. But in a larger way it was to foster a sense of humanity, justice and interconnectedness.
Within a year of its founding--having been inspired to finally throw the backpack over the wall by a summit in Worcester for the newly elected Governor Patrick in 2008 illustrating what civic engagement required; looked like in its diverse faces, community roles and backgrounds; and why it was everyone’s calling (You know those events, moments, books, that were truly made just for you. That convention was it for me!)--within a year of BRIDGE’s founding we added three essential groups: Children and Youth; Women to Women; and Towards racial Justice and Equity in the Berkshires. These three programs became the core of BRIDGE’s work and what institutionally informs in a mutual loop the cultural competence training design of our organization. At the time, it felt BRIDGE was everywhere and unfocused to everyone watching and curious and really the goal was to encourage folks to see the interconnectedness. The mission fit the five year olds and the 50 year olds. The core learning objectives were the same. The desire for the conversation to be at school, on the playground, at work and at the dinner table was the only pathway to transformation. BRIDGE held 80 multicultural dinners in 4 years to illustrate the diversity of our community, the value of individual stories and the connection when breaking bread together and listening and seeing.
In 2010 Governor Patrick joined our organization with members of his commission like Richard Chacon who at the time was head of Office of Refugees and Immigrants at Shakespeare & Company and really started us off legitimizing the work that had gone in to the founding of the organization. As BRIDGE develops, the purpose and theory of change remain the same and has challenged everyone in our path both internally and externally to unlearn what they know as truth in our history and present day culture throughout society and their own lived experience and relearn it with an overlay of an equitable lens to create a community that can live and thrive safely; where everyone is seen and heard; and where mutual understanding is the objective along the path to required change.
Fostering and stewarding mutual respect and understanding as it states in our founding mission still remains at the core of the approach. And creating a skill set for that level of authentic reciprocity to be applied is our goal across all aspects that make our society. At our core is our purpose to catalyze change and integration and we have been doing so since our inception.
We aren’t telling a new story, for a long, long time Black Feminists and Black Scholars have been telling us; activists have been fighting; journalists have been reporting; human service has been repairing and treating symptoms of oppression; capitalism and violence; some religious organizations have been praying, repairing and trying to reconcile. Feminists have been telling us. Social scientists & psychologists have been researching and have all the data we could ever need. We are just demanding you listen and make change required now! Educate our children, listen to the youth leadership, stand up for human rights, examine race and class by its design and get to work! Hopeless and helpless is an excuse.
BRIDGE is a community organization and there is an invitation to join extended to you right here and right now. It is made up of the folks that have made the choice to engage. It is minority and women led by Commonwealth standards and by our own internal standards. Not to exclude but to make our very best effort to illustrate and unpack accepted cultural norms of leadership and access and lead by example of what it requires to catalyze change working alongside one another.
Our BRIDGE successes, impact and legacy is too great to capture without another decade of deliberate attention and the even still our work is not done. In fact, in some ways it has just begun and that is where I need you. We need you for financial support, we need you educating yourself and your family and friends, and we need your hours of labor, leadership and expertise.
Our workplaces need you to step in and lead courageously.
Our community members and residents here in Berkshire County need your help. And so do the kids in VA and TX; immigrant workers; disabled adults; members of the LGBTQ community and children and black youth, men and women across this country. So do the white youth reaching for guns and the middle-aged white man dieing of addiction. And so do the historically oppressed groups where generation to generation access, humanity, citizenship can be given or taken away.
The stakes are higher and more visible in our society right now. Under this administration, people in my family are under direct attack or threat- my daughter living with autism, my oldest of the lgbtqia community, my daughter living with an autoimmune disease and my biracial son. There definitely is not a free pass to let someone else decide or do the work-- we have to stand up for what we believe in. I invite you in the most demanding and loving way possible to see what is uncomfortable to see, to name harm and its impact on all of us, to educate yourself and lean in to the possibility of your being the last one to make a difference. And trust the rippling impact. I invite you to join, support, speak up and most importantly educate yourself.
It is not enough to raise money or to sit at the table you or your predecessors have been excluded from, it is to change the guest list, the table and the table setting! I ask you to each use the power of your voice, presence and networks every day for justice! And I ask each of you to consider making a personally meaningful contribution to BRIDGE that sustains us moving forward!
Karen’s StoryKaren came to BRIDGE through Construct Inc., located in Great Barrington.
She needed to supplement her income due to a recent separation, which had left her with sole custody of her child, and a lot of debt. Construct Inc. informed Karen about Multicultural BRIDGE and how they could help her stabilize during her life uncertain times. Karen had no idea how expansive BRIDGE’s ability to help her would be. Prior to Karen’s arrival in the US, she had secured an MBA in Finance and worked at a bank for eight years. In order for Karen to pursue her career in the states, BRIDGE helped Karen create a resume for the local market and apply to banks in the area. Karen has now been working at a local bank for two years. BRIDGE also helped Karen throughout her divorce. Karen’s ex-husband was more familiar with the legal system and he used that against Karen. With the help of a lawyer that BRIDGE had provided, Karen was awarded full custody of her daughter. Karen and her lawyer also ended up becoming good friends and remain in regular contact to this day. Additionally, Karen was unsure as to her citizenship status and how it would be impacted by the divorce. Luckily, BRIDGE helped Karen get another lawyer, sent letters to vouch for her about getting the green card, and after a year fighting, USCIS gave her permanent residence in January 2016. Karen now has hope for the future and is looking forward to the rest of her promising life. |
Donna’s story
In late 2015, Greylock Federal Credit Union began investigating options for a Diversity Training program to offer our managers. Multicultural BRIDGE’S Cultural Competency program was hands-down the best training option offered in the marketplace.
Greylock selected BRIDGE’s program because their training focuses on many of the topics and issues that Greylock employees assist our members with on a daily basis. We also selected the program based on the incredible knowledge and experience Gwendolyn Hampton VanSant brings to the classroom. She has many certifications and life experiences that truly make her a subject-matter-expert and community leader.
In 2016, Gwendolyn delivered BRIDGE’s Cultural Competency program to over 60 Greylock Federal Credit Union managers and supervisors. The full-day program was packed with activities to facilitate learning and insight. Managers were encouraged to use the information when selecting new products or services at Greylock, and determining which vendors to conduct business with.
In 2017, Greylock delivered a condensed version of the Cultural Competency program to approximately 200 staff-level employees. Participants engaged in many of the same learning activities as their managers did, with less focus on how to integrate these topics into the workplace.
In order to remain culturally competent, Greylock has also contracted with BRIDGE to lead roundtable discussions with our managers two times per year, focusing on topics that we face as an employer and as a financial services provider. This year, the topics are Immigration Considerations and Generational Considerations. Much of the discussion is driven by participant questions, with no advance notice. Gwendolyn has proven once again to be an effect resource who carries a wealth of knowledge on a variety of topics. She’s able to answer our questions with ease and share complex, detailed information that helps to ensure our employees are better equipped to serve the community at large.
Greylock Federal Credit Union is a proud partner and supporter of Multicultural BRIDGE and the programs they provide our communities.
Greylock selected BRIDGE’s program because their training focuses on many of the topics and issues that Greylock employees assist our members with on a daily basis. We also selected the program based on the incredible knowledge and experience Gwendolyn Hampton VanSant brings to the classroom. She has many certifications and life experiences that truly make her a subject-matter-expert and community leader.
In 2016, Gwendolyn delivered BRIDGE’s Cultural Competency program to over 60 Greylock Federal Credit Union managers and supervisors. The full-day program was packed with activities to facilitate learning and insight. Managers were encouraged to use the information when selecting new products or services at Greylock, and determining which vendors to conduct business with.
In 2017, Greylock delivered a condensed version of the Cultural Competency program to approximately 200 staff-level employees. Participants engaged in many of the same learning activities as their managers did, with less focus on how to integrate these topics into the workplace.
In order to remain culturally competent, Greylock has also contracted with BRIDGE to lead roundtable discussions with our managers two times per year, focusing on topics that we face as an employer and as a financial services provider. This year, the topics are Immigration Considerations and Generational Considerations. Much of the discussion is driven by participant questions, with no advance notice. Gwendolyn has proven once again to be an effect resource who carries a wealth of knowledge on a variety of topics. She’s able to answer our questions with ease and share complex, detailed information that helps to ensure our employees are better equipped to serve the community at large.
Greylock Federal Credit Union is a proud partner and supporter of Multicultural BRIDGE and the programs they provide our communities.