During this time of increased awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement, the board of directors of Buzzy’s Bees has been listening and learning.
Buzzy’s mission is to offer emotional and financial support to families who have experienced the unexpected loss of a child. At our start, the families in our programs represented a narrow demographic. We acknowledge that this stems from privilege that our board members hold.
We recognize that seeking connection with communities of color would better serve our mission, make our organization stronger, and result in programs more representative of our whole country.
We are engaging in conversations about what it means to be anti-racist and discussing actionable steps to build strong programs that better reflect and support all grieving parents. Some ideas include:
- Reviewing our program applications to ensure inclusive verbiage is representative of families from varying backgrounds
- Actively doing outreach about our services to populations of folx outside of the immediate areas we live and work
- Locating resources to help us learn more about other cultures’ customs surrounding death and grief.
As we are an organization that honors the lives of young children who have died too soon, we name here the Black children whose lives were taken: Tamir Rice, Quanice Hayes, Trayvon Martin, Laquan McDonald, Jordan Edwards, Antwon Rose, and unfortunately, so many more.
We are learning and growing. We will continue to check our bias and build on changes in our organization. We invite you to engage with us in this conversation.
