Greetings Team & Family,
My name is Benny Vásquez, and I’m the Chief Equity Officer at the KIPP Foundation. I joined KIPP in 2019, and in this role I have the honor of partnering with the KIPP Team and Family to ensure we are living out our commitment to equity and racial justice in all that we do. I am a Black/Afro-Puerto Rican and Dominican, Queer, cisgender man and a parent of a four-year-old. I have been working at the intersection of community organizing, education, anti-racism, and anti-oppression for the last twenty years.
I decided to join KIPP because, as the largest public charter school network in the country, we have the responsibility to ensure our students are attending schools where they are valued, loved and honored. We have the potential to make an impact across all schools, not only KIPP. Over the last year, I have been amazed how our Team and Family has shown up for one another in such a challenging time. From ensuring students have access to virtual learning to providing alumni microgrants to support their postsecondary pursuits, it will take all of us to bring our mission to life.
As we become an anti-racist organization, our shared approach to this work is guided by a cycle of reflection to build awareness of what’s working and where we have gaps, shifting mindsets, addressing inequitable policies and practices and building affirming environments. This cycle is based in Dr. Barbara Love’s Liberatory Consciousness Framework.
As Richard shared, KIPP regions—together with alumni, students, and families—have been working hard to make meaningful progress based on their local context. In addition to the incredible work unfolding in different regions and schools, we are excited to highlight progress on racial justice and equity work that the entire network is driving together. Specifically, we have:
- Distributed nearly $5 million in mental-health and healing supports to address the disproportionate effects of Covid-19 and racial trauma on students and families, in partnership with a mental health expert and mental health practitioners across the network.
- Named a set of practices that are no longer acceptable in KIPP schools, in partnership with students, families, and alumni, and are working to ensure they cease to occur.
- Built a professional learning community of senior equity leaders across the network for ongoing professional development, consultancy, and shared action.
- Created an Equity Committee on the KIPP Foundation Board of Directors to ensure Board-level accountability to our equity goals.
- Completed an assessment of the current state of law enforcement and security presence in all regions.
- With the help of KAH Consulting Group, we concluded two months of listening sessions with KIPP staff, students, alumni, families, and partners, including in-depth interviews, focus groups and workshops, to inform the replacement of the slogan “Work hard. Be nice.” with a new slogan aligned to our vision and mission.
- Disseminated a survey to BIPOC leaders across the network to understand their experience and what can be done to support their growth and advancement.
As we look ahead, we will continue this momentum by:
- Implementing a School Culture Diagnostic across all schools beginning in Spring of 2021 to identify strengths and areas of improvement.
- Building a school culture Professional Learning Community that centers community partnerships to support schools in actively building identity-affirming policies and practices.
- Identifying a leader to oversee equity work in each region in the coming year.
- Ensuring all employees at the KIPP Foundation and in regions have made a commitment to anti-racism.
- Developing a network point of view on policing and security practices informed by parents, alumni, and staff.
- Forming a formal National Alumni Council made up of the co-leads of regional alumni associations across the country, which will advise the KIPP Foundation.
I am confident that this work will help us build more identify-affirming schools and continue to put us on a path towards becoming an anti-racist network and achieving our mission.
We look forward to continued collaboration and to sharing our progress with you in the months ahead. Thank you for your continued investment in the future of KIPP.
In partnership,
Benny
