Junior Achievement of Greater Washington stands in absolute solidarity with the peaceful protesters, and we condemn all acts of violence and discrimination against black citizens and all people of color. We believe strongly in fundamental equal rights for all and will use this moment to reinforce our values and do our part to drive the change our society so desperately needs.
We’ve spent the past two weeks digging deep, soul searching, listening, and reflecting on how best Junior Achievement of Greater Washington can do our part to promote equity in our communities. In doing so, we realize our platform enables us to rally stakeholders and partners across many sectors to come together, to listen, to learn, to act, and to lead.
First, as our mission states, we believe that access equals opportunity. We realize there is an undeniable link between quality education and unlocking greater economic opportunity, and we will accelerate the addition of transformational learning experiences to youth within historically underrepresented, underfunded and underestimated communities. We do this by continuing to invest significantly in underserved communities through building additional facilities and scaling school-based programming.
Second, we are looking internally and reminding ourselves that Junior Achievement’s core values of inclusion and diversity are foundational to our culture. We believe no one should be discriminated against because of their differences, and that individual backgrounds, perspectives and passions are our biggest asset. Therefore, we commit to having the hard conversations about race with all members of our team and community; listening to all points of view. We will be purposeful in making our organization more diverse and inclusive by being deliberate in our hiring and promotion practices. We commit for the long term and will hold each other accountable.
Finally, we mourn with the families who have suffered loss both recently and over many years and at the same time find strength in seeing the masses of passionate and peaceful protesters across the country standing up for justice. We join you; and commit to being part of the solution.