Statement on Anti-Racism

The Gordon House team has spent the last few weeks in deep reflection about the persistence of structural racism in our communities, and examining our own complicity within these systems. Hatred has no place in our community. But nonetheless, it continues to exist in our community.

Like you, we are horrified by current events. Black and Indigenous people are being killed every day for acts as simple as going for a run. There has been a substantial (and shameful) increase in anti-Asian racism here in our own neighborhood, and we are aware of multiple instances of elders being targeted by this violence. Something in our system is broken — and we must all take intentional action to fix it.

We have come together with our sister Houses across the Association of Neighbourhood Houses BC to make a public commitment to anti-racism work. Anti-Racism is the ‘practice of identifying, challenging, preventing, eliminating and changing the values, structures, policies, programs, practices and behaviours that perpetuate racism’. That statement is attached – and we hope you hold us accountable to do this work.

In the coming weeks, we will be sharing educational anti-racism resources for the community, including live workshops. We also welcome additional ideas, resources and workshops that we can share – please email welcome@gordonhouse.org

Please view our full public statement here:.http://anhbc.org/a-statement-from-anhbc/