Family Giving Tree is embracing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion so we can be a better service organization and better citizens. We're educating staff, changing business practices, and doing what we can to make a difference. The pool of learning is large; these are some of the things we found important to share.
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An Education "At Risk"
We've all heard and have probably used the term, "at-risk", to describe the students we serve during our Back-to-School Drive. It's one of the most frequently used terms in the news, in federal and state education policy discussions, and in the non-profit sector. While there are practical uses for the term itself, using "at-risk" to define a subset of students brings with it an unfair social stigma and vague definition of the population of people we are actually addressing.
Digital Redlining: Understanding the Digital Divide
Similar to how communities were historically redlined, the pandemic has exposed the unfortunate truth and challenge of the same communities who have been impacted by the systemic limitations of redlining with digital access. For those who need a refresher, redlining was the deliberate practice, carried out by both the government and the private sector, of denying loans and investments to communities of color.
The Different Between Sex and Gender
Sex refers to your biological characteristics. This includes genes, hormones, and reproductive organs. Most of the time, these features allow doctors to categorize people as "biologically male and female." However, there are also intersex people who have biological characteristics of two genders. The terms male, female, and intersex refer to someone's sex, not their gender.
How We Talk About Poverty
The concept of poverty is one we touch on very often in the work we do. We see how families who lack the financial means to provide basics for their children are impacted and this is why we have worked hard to provide nearly 2 million backpacks and gifts to the Bay Area community. It is important, however, to understand that poverty is merely an economic term and what we need to look at is the impact of poverty. Let's dive into what poverty really means and why language matters when we talk about it.
Micro-agression
You may (or may not) have seen or heard the term, "microaggression," but do you know what that means? You may have been a victim of microaggressions at some point in your life and not known it. You may have also unintentionally been a microaggressor and not realized it. Let's dive into what microaggressions are and why they are so important to identify.
