We Stand With You – Black Lives Matter

Black image with large white text: "WE STAND WITH YOU." smaller white text at the bottom: "Black Lives Mater"

To the Camp Kirk Community,

The events of the past couple of weeks have put another spotlight on the injustice and systemic racism present in our society and globally. For the Camp Kirk management and Board, it has pushed us to consider our part in the fight for a more just world.

First and foremost, the board and management team of Camp Kirk unanimously condemn discrimination, racism, and racial injustice. Camp Kirk’s primary focus is building inclusive communities for kids, and ensuring everyone feels valued and celebrated. We are committed to being open and vulnerable, and to actively listening, learning and engaging with our community.

Change begins with awareness and taking actions that have an impact. The Board and management team of Camp Kirk are committed to ensuring that our actions reflect our values.  As a starting point;

  • We are in the process of updating our strategic plan and annual operational goals. These plans will reflect our intentions to build diversity and inclusion into our programs to ensure a more just and equitable world.
  • We will engage the board and staff in training on diversity, inclusion and concepts of equity to ensure our core values are reflected in our work and our decision-making.
  • Our current board policies include a commitment to diversity.  We will use The Diversity in Governance Toolkit as a guide to examine how our policies can more thoroughly be applied in our work as a non-profit and as an organization working with children.
  • Our board is committed to broadening our recruitment strategies for board and committees, to ensure we have a diverse set of voices around the table. To this end, we recently starting to work with Skills4Good. If you would like to be a part of this process, please reach out!

We welcome input from the community as we endeavour to do better.

Black lives matter and black children matter. To all our black campers, staff, and supporters – we will do better, and we stand with you.

Sincerely,

Reid Bowlby
Board Chair		 Erica Park-Coutts
Executive Director

Friends of the Learning Disabled, Camp Kirk