Steps Toward Racial Justice

Steps Toward Racial Justice

Arm In Arm stands with all who have suffered racial discrimination and we emphatically reject any system which serves to entrench the privilege of one group above another simply because of their race, color, or religion.
 
Knowing that change begins at home, we commit ourselves to taking the following initial steps to be agents for positive change towards a more just and equitable community:

The staff and Board of Directors of Arm In Arm will educate themselves on the history and experience of Black Americans and the history of racial discrimination and brutality against these Americans in our nation’s history. We will offer educational materials to partners and incorporate these materials as required racial sensitivity training for board members and for staff. Already we have begun open discussions on race, inequality and injustice among staff and board members and we will continue to prioritize this in a regular way.

We are committed to increasing diversity in the composition of our Board of Directors. Specifically, we look to recruit to our board this year at least one Trenton resident, one former client, and add to our Board additional people of color committed to our Mission over the next several years.

We have created a staff committee who will help us fulfill our commitment to educate our staff, clients, and stakeholders on issues regarding racial injustice and discrimination with a specific focus on how the experience of our clients give rise to food, housing, and employment insecurity.
Learn more about our Social Justice Committee Here

Though we are not an advocacy organization and are committed to serving all humans with equal dignity and respect, we will nevertheless encourage members of our community to act, in accordance with their individual values, to seek out ways to be part of positive social reform that would help address the root cause of food, housing, and employment insecurity. We understand that these reforms require the best efforts of a diversity of experts, but we support the efforts of our elected officials of any political party to make these reforms a top priority, for the betterment of Black Americans, of those who have been marginalized and of all people.

Arm In Arm leadership will continue to seek concrete ways that we might be a bridge between the neighbors we serve and our local government and law enforcement officials to end racial discrimination and to make our communities places where people, especially those most historically marginalized, might thrive. Arm In Arm recognizes, and is grateful to, law enforcement personnel who endeavor to serve our communities without bias so that the members of our community might live more safely. As a part of this community, we support any reforms that would better realize an end to the tragic miscarriages of justice and institutional violence epitomized in the deaths George Floyd and so many other Black Americans.

Anti-Racism Resources

Below you will find some of the resources that have been shared amongst our staff to help facilitate our own growth. We offer them here in the hopes that they may be helpful to you as well.

Books

So You Want to Talk About Race
How to Be an Antiracist
Between the World and Me
The New Jim Crow
White Rage

TV & Documentaries

Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap
13th
Time: The Kalief Browder Story
America and Me
White Rage
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