June 2nd, 2020

Over the last several months our world has been turned upside down. Not only is our community, our country, and our world dealing with a pandemic for which there currently is no cure, but we are now in the midst of civil unrest, the likes of which we have not seen in America for a very long time.

Almost 56 years ago Community Action was born as part of the Civil Rights Movement, and we, as an agency, continue to strongly and passionately denounce all forms of violence and any other actions or words meant to dehumanize anyone. We hold justice as one of our core values and recognize the inherent oppression and racism that permeate our systems.

The words of the Community Action promise articulate who we are and what we believe. “We care about the entire community”. The death of George Floyd is yet another example of injustice, among the many we have been seeing in recent times. We continue to see a rise in murders in the African American Community, attacks on Asian American owned businesses and increasing numbers of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls.

We stand with all those who are fighting injustice and offer our support to those experiencing it. The staff and leadership of KOOTASCA are committed to ending racism and the injustices that disproportionately affect our black and brown community members, and others who have been marginalized in our communities. Our values at Community Action assert, “We believe that all people should be treated with dignity and respect and recognize that structural race, gender and other inequities remain barriers that must be addressed.” If we truly believe this, we must live it.