Over the past several months, CLC’s staff and Board of Directors have been engaging in a process to discern how we can best draw on the strengths and wisdom of older adults and people with disabilities in our organization and our neighborhoods to support the Black Lives Matter movement and Black communities.The Board has adopted the following statement:
The Community Living Campaign (CLC) is committed to building communities that value fairness, equity, and justice.
We support the Black Lives Matter movement and its call for justice. As an organization that works with a diversity of older adults and people with disabilities from many ethnic and racial groups, it is imperative that we collectively address the systemic racism that the Black Lives Matter movement seeks to remedy, and its relationship with our own cultural histories and personal experiences.
The actions we see against Black people are not new nor are they unfamiliar to the individuals and communities who have experienced the effects of racist policies and practices for generations. Through the years, CLC members have engaged in actions against racist, ageist, ableist, classist, sexist, homophobic, and xenophobic policies. We have joined the ranks of legislators and advocates to correct these discriminatory policies and prejudices, which have not been eradicated, but continue to morph into new forms.
There is much more to do. CLC is committed to listening, learning, and rededicating ourselves to remedying racism at every level – within our organization, the neighborhoods we serve, and the wider community.
The present is an important opportunity for older and younger generations to stand together and join forces in the Black Lives Matter movement. Toward that end, CLC has created a dedicated space on its website to share information and resources with staff and the wider community. This is one of the first steps in our action plan, which outlines ways we can have a positive impact on the lives of those we touch now and in the months and years ahead.
Significant effort is required to understand issues of injustice, if injustice is to be eliminated in our lifetime and during the lives of following generations. We must continuously reaffirm our social contract, self-check our actions, and commit to teaching and learning from one another to establish a safe, healthy place for all. The work is on-going, but urgent. Please join us.