Mr. Guare X a Clinical Social Worker at the Jewish Board Of family And Children's Services, Inc., Break Free program conducted a two semester group for African American students in our Thomas Askin on site alternative high school:
This year, the JBFCS/Break- Free program had open discussions with AA adolescents on all subjects that pertain to the disenfranchisement and psychological manipulation that make ethnic groups feel inferior, oppressed, and abused. The Alternative High School educational teachers, as well as the rest of the staff, supported this mission. As a result, the participants were recognized and awarded certificates of merit after presenting their thoughts about what they learned regarding their experience. I was not the only one moved by their empathy, compassion, and wisdom. They explored topics on the many injustices that minority and ethnic groups face. It is extremely important to note that these students realize issues of racism and injustice are not going away, and that there is serious work to be done about educating the public about these issues.
I am quite sure that this is the only mental health agency and educational site of this magnitude that provided this resource in the 2006-2007school year. I strongly believe that this work needs to continue until the word racism and all the ugliness attached to that word disappears from society, never to rear its ugly head again.
The following are testimonials from people who have taken the Undoing Racism Workshop:
"As a Latino born and educated in this nation and with solid ties to the immigrant communities and communities of color the workshop provides crucial insight into the identification and recognition of racist behavior too often missed and overlooked by communities that have arrived in this nation during the last 30 years. The capacity to identify and recognize the history of the constructed racism clarifies the strategies needed to be utilized for all of us to be free. In addition, unless we recognize our commonalities with the communities of color, emphasized with ARA, we will continue to be divided."
Luis Quiros, MPA.,MSW
Board Member of NYCLU
Chairperson, Westchester Community Opportunity Program
Professor Fordham University
Touro College
I have taken the training five times in two years and we pay for our board members to take it. This has changed how we understand our profession, human services, and the communities we serve.
Robert Schachter, DSW, LMSW
Executive Director NASW-NYC
The Undoing Racism Workshop changed my life and my view of what excellence in social workpractice, administration, andeducation truly entails.
Mary Pender Greene, LCSW-R
Assistant Executive Director
Jewish Board of Family & Children's Services
The Undoing Racism Workshop presented by the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond is a life changingexperience.
Phyllis B. Frank, Director
VCS Community Change Project,Rockland County, NY
Racism is a disease.
The URW is the treatment!
Deacon Ken Radcliffe
Coordinator The ISAIAH Project
The Criminal JUST US Committee
A Must for the Social Work Profession!
Mimi Abramovitz, DSW,Prof. Social Policy,
Hunter College SWand The Graduate Center,
City University of New York ( CUNY)
The Undoing Racism Workshop built my confidence by giving me a framework to help students learn that change must take place and that we all are the changemakers."
Jane H. Edwards, DSW
Assistant Dean Fordham University GSSS
"The Undoing Racism Workshop has had a tremendous impact on urging me to rethink every aspect of my various professional roles and my personal interactions.
Andrew Hamid, PhD, ACSW
Senior Advisor United Nations
International Drug Prevention World Health Org.
Adjunct Professor of SW Columbia University
The workshop was a deeply moving and intellectually stimulating experience that changed the way
I think and the way I teach."
Paul Kurzman, Ph.D., ACSW
Prof/ former Acting Dean Hunter College SW
The Undoing Racism Workshop was transformational and moving. I am grateful to have had theopportunity which has enriched me, my work at JBFCS and in the Human Service Community. I plan to participate again.
Alan B. Siskind, Ph. D., Ex. V.P. & CEO
Jewish Board of Family & Children's Services
Chair, Human Services Council, NYC
...This structure has facilitated development in my racial identity and my ability to become a more effective anti-racist educator.
Marion Riedel, PhD, LCSW
Asst Professor Columbia University
School of Social Work
It was like getting corrective lenses; you are seeing things you've never seen before. The whole world looked very different. It had a profound impact on my life.
Gail Golden, ED D., MSW
Clinical Director Volunteer Counseling Service Rockland County
I wish I would have experienced this workshop 20 years ago.
Members of the AntiRacist Alliance share their reflections about the impact of the Undoing Racism Workshop on our personal and professional lives.
I am retiring in three weeks. I have been a community organizer for over thirty years. I recently took the Undoing Racism workshop and finally got it.
(Silence).I required the new executive director to take the workshop before beginning the job.
I work for protective services in Westchester County. Last week I went to a home and all the indicators pointed to removal (of a child from their family). I realized in that moment that I would be re-enacting history. I told myself NO, I WILL NOT DO THIS. I searched for kinship and when that did not work out, I contacted Sanctuary and we will work together to find an alternative to removal.
The Undoing Racism Workshop has informed all the work I did this year and it also informed all the committee work and the committee members.
It was the most life-changing workshop that I have takenand I have taken quiet a few in my life. It has to do with everything. across the boardit is for everyone. It is about structure and strategy.
Undoing Racism saved my life in 2006. I have been a social worker for a long long time. Started out as a Community Organizer. Years ago we had an environment that nurtured us. That is gone. When David Billings put up that systemI understood the system is doing what we used to do for ourselves. We have turned adults into children.
The frustration was getting too much for me. The URW re-energized me.
Dialogues of Racism are with anger and emotion for me. Many, many nights Ive cried and did it for years and years. I am dried out nowUndoing Racism is our escapelike the Underground Railroad!
