Finding Common Ground: Community Engagement at Harbor Day

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.

With 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 revolve around the representation of different groups, including people of different ages, races and ethnicities, abilities and disabilities, genders, religions, cultures, and sexual orientations. Book discussions give parents and teachers a chance to connect over non-school topics in small groups. Community-wide events like these are opportunities for Harbor Day School to continue fostering a partnership between families and the school. All-school assemblies offer opportunities for students to celebrate their differences and

“similarities. This year we led an activity we call “common ground” where students and faculty 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

FACT: HARBOR DAY SCHOOL’S STRATEGIC PLAN LAUNCHED IN THE “ Connection and empathy are the keys SPRING OF 2021. ONE OF THE PLAN’S CORE VALUES INCLUDES to DEI work at DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND

Harbor Day School INCLUSION. THE GOAL IS TO FOSTER SOCIALLY as we strive to create RESPONSIBLE AND a better world for EMPATHETIC STUDENTS our friends, family, WHO RECOGNIZE AND and community EMBRACE DIFFERENCES AMONG THE MEMBERS at large. OF OUR SOCIETY.

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.