As you’re aware if you’ve watched the news or participate in social media, there has been a large and appropriate response to the murder of Black Americans by police officers taking place over the last several days. Our society is being traumatized by the systematic, institutional racism that pervades the structures that govern and rule our citizenry. Our Black neighbors live in fear every second of every day that their name will be the next that needs to be remembered. That their son or daughter may be the next Black citizen murdered in the streets or in their own home by the people who swore to protect them.

We want to openly and loudly affirm for our Black employees, clients, and community members that you are safe at EPEC from racism and discrimination. We vehemently oppose and condemn the actions of the police officer in Minneapolis who murdered George Floyd in cold blood, along with the hundreds of others who went before him. We recognize that your lives have been, and are, repeatedly traumatized and that you are still showing up for work/life every day with a positive attitude and consistently representing survivors with a smile. From the white aspiring allies on our team at EPEC: we understand that we will never understand but know that we are here beside you to use our white privilege as a building block to advocate for change in our society.

How are we going to address this as an EPEC team? Ignoring it is not an option. We do a deep disservice to ourselves by turning a blind eye and pretending that these events are not impacting our staff, community, and the survivors we serve. We have a responsibility and we must stay true to those values. If EPEC truly is a great place to work/receive services/community member, we must continue to prove that. Our employees, community, and clients deserve this, our culture deserves this. To this end, there are many, many resources for our white aspiring allies to utilize to improve their knowledge and skill as an aspiring ally, here are a few: