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FINDING COMMON GROUND: COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AT HARBOR DAY By Yunga Webb
A focus this school year from the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) group is community engagement. This focus allows us to understand and appreciate the intentional work of inclusion while valuing diversity.
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ith empathy at the core of our DEI work, we engage our student body in activities that foster caring, respect, fairness, and responsibility. In addition, a robust DEI program helps foster higher degrees of engagement and productivity among all members of the community. Over the past two years, we have engaged our parents and faculty by offering book discussion evenings, providing the opportunity to read a nonfiction book. So far, we have discussed Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime, Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do, and Brandi Carlile’s Broken Horses. Book discussions FACT: revolve around the representation of different groups, including people of HARBOR DAY SCHOOL’S different ages, races and ethnicities, abilities and disabilities, genders, reliSTRATEGIC PLAN gions, cultures, and sexual orientations. Book LAUNCHED IN THE discussions give parents and teachers a chance SPRING OF 2021. Connection and to connect over non-school topics in small ONE OF THE PLAN’S empathy are the keys CORE VALUES INCLUDES groups. Community-wide events like these are DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND to DEI work at opportunities for Harbor Day School to conINCLUSION. THE GOAL tinue fostering a partnership between families Harbor Day School IS TO FOSTER SOCIALLY and the school. as we strive to create RESPONSIBLE AND All-school assemblies offer opportunities EMPATHETIC STUDENTS a better world for WHO RECOGNIZE AND for students to celebrate their differences and our friends, family, EMBRACE DIFFERENCES similarities. This year we led an activity we call and community AMONG THE MEMBERS “common ground” where students and faculty at large. OF OUR SOCIETY. were divided into birth order groups (oldest, youngest, middle, only children, twins, and triplets). We discussed the commonalities they shared as members of their particular birth order. Students and faculty alike were able to have candid discussions where they shared common stories. Connection and empathy are the keys to DEI work at Harbor Day School as we strive to create a better world for our friends, family, and community at large. n
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DEI MISSION STATEMENT: To promote a culture of understanding where we value the unique qualities of our community constituents. Instilling a sense of ownership as we strive to increase awareness and influence actions, we take a stand against prejudice, and we celebrate inclusivity. Within the Harbor Day curriculum, we aim to recognize, appreciate, and share each person’s experiences, thereby enhancing the lens through which we all view the world.
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