Gwendolyn VanSant is the leader of Multicultural BRIDGE in Lee, MA. In 2017, Gwendolyn and her team helped launch the Not In Our Town movement in the Berkshires to unify communities throughout the county to stop hate, address bullying, and build safe, inclusive communities for all.
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Earlier this month, Gwendolyn spoke with both WGBY and Berkshire Bank for an in-depth discussion about the killing of George Floyd, the protests that have erupted across the country, what can be done to create change, and how to take care of our communities right now. 

Watch the video and read Moving as an Anti-Racist: Acknowledge, Align, Amplify, Ask, Activate, Gwendolyn's recent article which summarizes what was discussed in both conversations. The pieces was originally published on her site and recently featured on the Not In Our Town blog.

Jack Lyons | The Berkshire Eagle

​PITTSFIELD — Institutions in Berkshire County are pledging to promote racial equity inside and outside their organizations, as frustration over systemic racism continues to ignite protest after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Demands for action, not words, are growing louder.

But not all responses are created equal, one local expert said, and organizations must be deliberate and sincere to create real change.
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Gwendolyn VanSant, chief executive officer of the local diversity nonprofit Multicultural BRIDGE, advises organizations to be personal and honest in their response to outcry about systemic racism.

"The most important thing is if they talk about what's happening and they reflect on where they are as an organization. So if they haven't talked about race, they have to start there," she said. "If they've been doing training for some time, and they've been working at it, then I think they need to take stock on where they are; what goals they've met and what goals they haven't."

VanSant emphasized that creating an equitable culture is a process, and organizations shouldn't pursue actions like significantly adjusting hiring practices if they "haven't done the work."

"In our county, what happens when you just start hiring people of color is you cause a lot more harm," she said. "You actually reinforce negative stereotypes because people aren't used to working cross-culturally, they don't understand that the culture is hard to penetrate for someone of a different background."

"All of that turns into being perceived, most of the time, as somebody's confidence or `good fit,' when really it's white supremacy culture," she added.

Heather Bellow | The Berkshire Eagle

GREAT BARRINGTON — The nation of Ghana honored the late George Floyd this month by placing his name at the W.E.B. Du Bois Center, an act that linked the May 25 victim of police violence with one of this country's most celebrated black intellectuals.

Back in DuBois' hometown of Great Barrington, efforts continue to honor him, at a time when monuments of Confederate generals and other racist symbols around the country are driven out. There are two plans in the works: a sculpture of Du Bois in a prominent location downtown, and the renaming of Monument Valley Regional Middle School after Du Bois.

Jake Mendel | The Berkshire Eagle
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GREAT BARRINGTON — Living life on a farm and through the lens of food, Sean Stanton and his partner, Tess Diamond-Stanton, wanted to support the fight against systemic racism.

As the owners of North Plain Farm in Great Barrington, Sean and Tess are taking part in "Bakers against Racism," a worldwide virtual bake sale in order to combat structural racism.
The sale started Monday afternoon and runs through this week, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the Berkshire Resources of Integration of Diverse Groups through Education, also known as Bridge.

"Sean and I have been searching for more to do," Diamond-Stanton said. "We have a lot of customers in the community and a great network of incredible culinary talent. This seemed like a good fit for us to highlight the work of an organization that has done a lot of good work in the Berkshires for years."

Bridge, a Lee-based grassroots organization, is dedicated to advancing equality and justice by promoting cultural competence, positive psychology and mutual acceptance in the Berkshires and across the state.

"Our vision is to advocate for communities that were invisible or marginalized," said Gwendolyn VanSant, CEO and Founding Director of Bridge. "We went into overdrive and worked to be approved as an essential business as soon as the quarantine hit in order to provide food and services." 

Josh Landes | WAMC

Gwendolyn VanSant is the CEO and founding director of Multicultural BRIDGE, a minority and women run Berkshire County cultural competency training organization that focuses on racial justice and equity. VanSant spoke with WAMC about how communities can combat structural racism – and how municipal budgets play an outsized role in that conversation.

Heather Bellow | The Berkshire Eagle
SHEFFIELD — A student's racist social media post last week is continuing to stoke fear and outrage in the community, and parents say they are worried about a culture of bigotry among some that festers in the district.
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Mount Everett Regional High School officials say privacy laws prevent them from commenting about the student, a freshman, and they doubled down over the weekend on their stance that such acts are hurtful and require a reckoning.
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Gwendolyn Hampton VanSant, founder and CEO of Bridge, said the behavior of children and students is influenced by parents, teachers and school systems.

"It is our collective responsibility as a county that we don't produce Berkshire children with a limited understanding of civics, civility and our American history," she said. "This young [person] has been failed by our school system."

Stephanie Wright and three generations of her family moved through the Southern Berkshire district, and Wright went on to teach there for two years. Wright, who is Bridge's community engagement coordinator, instructor and facilitator, said her students there were "full of curiosity and suspicion" because they weren't used to seeing educators of color.​