June 6, 2020
Dear CISV Families,
We are living through a historically challenging time. The murder of George Floyd and the public outcry in response to this injustice has been heart-wrenching. We have awoken each of the days this week and last to news detailing the previous night’s heartbreak. We have seen on the streets the sadness and anger that follow from weeks, years, decades and centuries of accumulated grievances.
It is helpful to remind ourselves about the ways that CISV can be a support for our children and our families during these tough times. Perhaps, like many of us, you joined CISV because of the exciting summer program for your child and then learned about all that CISV has to offer. Did you know that CISV’s mission is to “educate and inspire action for a more peaceful and just world” by helping participants “develop the skills they need to become informed, responsible and active global citizens and make a difference in their communities and the world.” This is most certainly what we need now.
As a Board, we are committed to growing our Chapter to more fully represent the diversity of our communities. We will begin by reading How to Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi and doing a session on antiracist leadership at one of our upcoming meetings. We will continue with our plans to bring the CISV experience to local diverse communities through our newly developed Passport camp and hope to hold camp when guidelines permit. Finally, we hope to continue educating ourselves on effective ways we can bring change through our CISV mission.
For those of us searching for ways to make an impact or take action, here are some ways to support the BLM movement and get justice for those affected by the injustice/racism we see in the world today. CISV USA also provided some ideas from Joel A. Davis Brown that you might find helpful. Please respond to this email if you would like to suggest more resources to share or actions our chapter could develop.
As always, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or would like more information about our ongoing commitment.
With Peace and Love,
Your CISV Philadelphia Board
Dear CISV Philadelphia Families,
We wanted to let you know what has been happening within CISV as the COVID-19 strain of coronavirus has continued to spread across the world and has begun to impact daily life at home. At all levels within the organization, we’ve been monitoring the situation and are making decisions about which events are safe to continue running.
National has decided to cancel all summer programs involving US members – both sending and hosting. There is more information on that here.
CISV USA has cancelled the upcoming March Chapter Development in Detroit and the Staff Training in Dallas. Fortunately, BV members were able to attend the local Chapter Development Workshop a couple of weeks ago, so we should not be impacted by the CDW cancellations. Staff training is being rescheduled. If other national events are cancelled, we will directly notify those people who are registered.
We will keep everyone apprised of the status of upcoming Philadelphia events, and are looking at scheduling some meetings and fun activities during the summer once the pandemic has calmed down. We have decided to reschedule the in-person April JB Meeting and Adult Meeting to make it virtual (see more info here.)
If any of you have other ideas about how to keep the CISV spirit going during this period, please let me know and we’ll see what we can organize!
We will update you via email and on the website with more news as it comes in.
We understand that the uncertainty of the next few months is very stressful, but ask everyone to be patient as we navigate this uncharted territory. If you have any questions, ideas, or concerns, please reach out to me at the email address below.