PARTNERS in Opportunity

Life amid COVID-19 has been quite the experience. For some of us, it was a time of adjustment—creating new routines while balancing working from home, caring for loved ones and teaching children, all while managing the stress and anxiety of simply maintaining in a pandemic. Many struggled with the harsh reality of balancing business budgets during the Stay Home, Stay Safe order, unable to avoid layoffs, furloughs or even closing their doors permanently. Others had the added responsibility of carrying out their essential roles as frontline workers—caring for our community during such a tumultuous time. And, there are those who carried the added trauma of deep and historic racial, social and economic inequities that are only intensified in times of crisis.

And then, we received news of the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd—only a few of the countless Black lives that have been lost due to this nation’s history of systemic and overt racism and oppression. We can no longer turn our heads or close our eyes to this harsh reality that has persisted throughout the history of our country and right here in our community. The righteous rage that has been demonstrated in the streets of our beloved West Michigan is real. The racial uprisings happening in our region, country and world are calls for us to wake up. Calls for us to acknowledge that Black Lives do not merely “Matter," but that they deserve to thrive, to be cherished and to be celebrated. As author and activist Kimberly Jones so passionately stated, “They are lucky that what Black people are looking for is equality and not revenge.”

We are at a critical juncture in our history and we have the opportunity to do things differently; to do things right. Together, as a community, we can take hold of the real opportunity for an equitable recovery from COVID-19 and from generations of racial and socioeconomic inequities.

This pandemic has taught me a lot about our community. While I have been leading the Community Foundation for nearly 33 years, I am in awe of the many lessons I have recently learned from our partners. Lessons about resistance and resolve, courage and collaboration, innovation and integrity. I know I speak on behalf of the entire Community Foundation team when I say we hold close what our many community partners have taught us so far, and we know there is so much more for us to learn as we move together toward recovery.