A Letter to Our Community

The Sasco River Center team wants you to know that we, too, are feeling the crushing weight of the tumultuous events of 2020. We have all been weathering the storm of the Coronavirus pandemic for nearly three months.  And now, with the tsunami of protests, both peaceful and violent, that are occurring in response at present to the death of George Floyd but ultimately to decades of aggressive acts against people of color, many of us are left questioning our own perspectives in the face of privilege and explaining race to our kids.

Parents and adults, you may be feeling a buckling of your stance. Trying to work from home while maintaining the roles of teacher, social captain, entertainer, and counselor for your family is overwhelming in the best of times. Doing so during a time of required social distancing is daunting even for the most organized among us! We all have been charged with being “older, wiser, and stronger”. We are expected to be role models and to captain our respective ships, but what if we are not feeling confident? What if we are actually feeling terrified? Oxygen is the through-line of all we have been exposed to this year; not being able to breathe, literally or metaphorically, makes it impossible to function or focus. The question persists: as parents, are we remembering to put on our own oxygen masks first?

Our children are facing challenges not seen in our own childhoods. Being forced into distance learning and forbidden to attend school and social activities has left even the most seemingly well-adjusted feeling isolated, depressed, anxious, and angry. And now, with any exposure to the news of the past week, anxiety levels are sure heightened.  We–and they–have had our respective emotional wells tapped, so to speak.

So now what do we do? How can we fight the good fight? How can we take on one more traumatizing event? It’s more important than ever to bring awareness about racial injustice to our children.  Research has shown that children develop more open-mindedness about others when issues like racism and privilege are openly discussed at home.  These are tough discussions to have, to be sure.  But especially now, there is a wealth of resources available to help us navigate these rough waters.

Below is a list of links we have gathered from varied sources. We hope you will find these resources helpful to help educate you and your children on current events.

• Explaining the The News to Your Kids
• Understanding Race & Privilege (by the National Association of School Psychologists)
• Your Kids Aren’t Too Young to Talk about Race

Resources from the Connecticut Psychological Association

ADVOCATE

• Call a Representative:
  • https://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/menu/cgafindleg.asp 
  • https://www2.cbia.com/ga/get_involved/contact_ct_legislators/-A1 
• Sign a petition:
  • Text “FLOYD” to 55156 and sign the Color of Change petition, demanding justice for George Floyd.
    Visit the petition here:  https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/justiceforfloyd_george_floyd_minneapolis/
  • https://www.change.org/p/mayor-jacob-frey-justice-for-george-floyd?utm_source=brand_us&utm_medium=media

EDUCATE

Educate ourselves and be willing to re-examine our views and actions to become better allies and address racism. 

• An Antiracist Reading List
• “Don’t Understand the Protests? What You Are Seeing Is People Pushed To The Edge”
• “Black People Need Stronger White Allies – Here’s How You Can Be One”
• “How White People Can Hold Each Other Accountable to Stop Institutional Racism”
• Ijeoma Oluo’s “So You Want to Talk About Race“
• Movies: “13th”; “When They See Us”
• Real Talk: Women of Color (WOC) & Allies for Racial Justice and Anti-Oppression

COMMUNICATE

Help our youth make sense of current events and educate children of all ages about racism.

• ChildMind.org  Conversation with Kids about Race
• Parent Toolkit: How to Talk to Kids about Race and Racism
• A Parent’s Guide to Preventing and Responding to Prejudice
• How to Use Media to Raise Anti-Racist Kids

CREATE

Develop and implement healing spaces for staff, students, and clients of color.

• https://healourcommunities.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/WKKTH_18004_7X9_Brochure.pdf
• https://theconversation.com/grief-is-a-direct-impact-of-racism-eight-ways-to-support-yourself-91750
• https://www.racialhealthequity.org/blog/2019/5/24/embracing-difference-as-cultural-healing
• https://www.safeblackspace.org 

DONATE

Donate to organizations dedicated to racial equality and justice.

• NAACP: aims to eliminate race-based discrimination and secure political, educational, social, and economic equality. 
• Southern Poverty Law Center 
• United Negro College Fund
• Black Lives Matter
• Color of Change
• National Bail Fund Network
• Campaign Zero: aims to end police brutality in America
• ACLU: fights to protect human civil liberties, including criminal justice, prisoners’ rights, and racial justice.

Sasco River Center is a comprehensive, collaborative environment that provides evaluations and testing, psychotherapy, psychiatry and treatment, occupational therapy and sensory processing, speech and language, learning support, parenting and family support as well as many more services. Please review our website to learn more https://sascoriver.com

Developed by Rebecca Strang (parent Coach) and Dr. Lindsay Blass (Psychologist)