World Childhood Foundation USA’s Manifesto to Address Racial Inequity
The murder of George Floyd and the countless killings of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) have reiterated the need for the global community to condemn the historic and systemic racism and injustice in our society. Childhood USA and its partners call for an end to inequality and injustice in the United States and around the world.
At Childhood USA we believe that no child should ever have to experience discrimination, violence, abuse or exploitation, and that every child has the right to a safe and happy childhood. However, based on experience from 20 years of supporting programs in the U.S., it is clear that children from marginalized, vulnerable and BIPOC communities are at disproportionately greater risk of sexual abuse and exploitation.
To promote and fight for equality, human dignity and all children’s right to their childhood, independent of race and socio-economic status, we must engage in dismantling systemic institutional racism.
The ongoing protests and civil unrest across the world demonstrate that we must intensify our efforts by highlighting the need to listen to and amplify voices from BIPOC communities and remain unwavering in our commitment to create lasting change.
At the core of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework and agenda is humanity and our aspiration to create an inclusive, just and sustainable planet for ALL – leaving no one behind:·
SDG 10 calls for “Reducing inequality within and among countries” to ensure the social, economic, and political inclusion of all peoples without discrimination;·
SDG 16 calls for “Promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels”;·
SDG 16.2 target calls for “Ending all forms of violence against children, including sexual abuse and exploitation, by 2030.”
To achieve these sustainable development goals, we must address the pervasive racial discrimination and injustice in the United States and around the globe.
Childhood USA’s Commitment
At Childhood USA, we recognize that we can do better and must. Our commitment to improve our governance, operations and strategy will continue to reflect our values and charter. As a mission-driven organization we have a social responsibility to reflect, organize, and re-prioritize our work to ensure accountability and sustainability to our stakeholders – especially the children and families we serve. In order to achieve our vision, we fully commit to the anti-racism and injustice movement by:
Incorporating an intersectional lens of equity into all of our work streams including governance, strategy, operations and programs;
Partnering and collaborating with organizations that embody the same values as Childhood, as well as supporting projects that serve communities of color and striving to accelerate the achievement of equality and justice;
We will thoroughly review, audit and revise Childhood USA’s governance and organizational protocols and practices by:
Committing to diversity on our board, board committees, staff and advisory bodies;
Providing mandatory diversity and inclusion training for all staff and the officers of the Board of Directors;
Ensuring that the programs Childhood supports have diversity and inclusion policies in place;
Ensuring that our Childhood supported programs work with organizations which have diverse Boards and BIPOC in executive leadership;
Promoting and embedding diversity in all Childhood organized events such as conferences, seminars and galas;
Ensuring that our resources and all communications are culturally sensitive and honor the voices of survivors in every community, including the BIPOC community, which has been disproportionately affected by sexual violence;
Ensuring that Childhood summer programs are inclusive of BIPOC youth;
Implementing an accountability mechanism and a review of equality efforts as listed above.
There should be zero tolerance for racism, injustice and inequality in our society, and we at Childhood USA will champion this in all our activities.
Without addressing the racial and socio-economic inequalities in our society and organization, we will not be able to end violence and sexual abuse and exploitation of children.