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

Not in our town features "Moving as an AntiRacist" by Gwendolyn vansant

6/30/2020

0 Comments

 
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.
​
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.
Read on the NIOT blog
0 Comments

Anti-racism work climbs agenda for Berkshires arts, business groups

6/28/2020

0 Comments

 
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.
​
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.
Read the full article
0 Comments

Efforts to honor black scholar, activist continue in Great Barrington

6/22/2020

0 Comments

 
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.
Read the full article
0 Comments

Berkshire bakers combine forces to combat racism

6/17/2020

0 Comments

 
Jake Mendel | The Berkshire Eagle
​
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." 
Read the full article
0 Comments

Multicultural BRIDGE CEO On Implementing Structural Change

6/10/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
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.

Listen or read the full interview here
0 Comments

Southern Berkshire community reckons with student's racist post

6/9/2020

0 Comments

 

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.
​
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.
...

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.​
Read the full article
0 Comments

    Archives

    February 2025
    January 2025
    July 2024
    October 2023
    July 2023
    August 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    February 2022
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017

    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