BLACK LIVES MATTER AT CAMP: SPEAKING UP AND TAKING ACTION
Today, on the Summer Camp Day of Action for Black Lives, The Road Less Traveled stands in solidarity with the camp world and Black and Indigenous People of Color to affirm that Black Lives Matter today and every day. We are striving to continually educate ourselves and be a part of eliminating structural racism and white supremacy within our programs and the communities we serve.
When the killing of George Floyd happened on May 25th, I was quarantined at another camp in northern Wisconsin. I remember feeling confused, helpless, angry and scared for my Black friends, family, and mentors. But I know it didn’t come close to what any of them were feeling. I knew it was time to stop using my privilege as an excuse and to start using it as a platform. I started posting to my social media accounts and I started having difficult, uncomfortable conversations with friends and family. It was when I started to read the book Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates that I quickly realized how uneducated I was on the immensity and depth of systemic racism and white supremacy. So I started to follow more educational accounts and I bought so many books.
I’m still new to The Road Less Traveled family, but one of the things that drew me to RLT was the values that define the company as a whole and the individuals within it. Our founders, Jim and Donna, were in the business of providing life-changing experiences, but it was more than that. Creating an equitable world free of barriers rooted in race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or class has been a pillar of RLT since the beginning. Community service and adventure were used as vectors to provide our younger generations the opportunity to develop into young leaders, to challenge their world views, and to be a part of the larger conversations on social justice and societal change.
Our organization is fortunate to have the foundation of empathy, inclusion, and respect that Jim and Donna have embodied for the past 30 years. We understand that now is the time for RLT to act, and we are dedicated to being a part of the solution. Historically, our Trip Leaders are trained in creating safe environments for our participants to have difficult conversations. Going forward, our Trip Leaders will be equipped with the tools to facilitate age-appropriate conversations and activities to navigate racism and other systemic barriers that are so prevalent today. Beyond that, new this summer, we are introducing a program in the Smoky Mountain region of Tennessee that is dedicated to Social Justice and Black History Education.
We know we still have much to learn and work on within our organization. We understand that making lasting, impactful change is a marathon, not a sprint, and we plan to meet this challenge head-on. We will be taking steps to improve the representation of BIPOC on our staff. We are actively reviewing our policies to identify any discriminatory language and processes that are in place, and making adjustments to ensure that we are an organization that promotes inclusion and equity in all areas of our company. These steps are just a start; we will be continuing these conversations within our RLT team, actively engaging BIPOC in these conversations, and are firm in our commitment to continued action in our anti-racism efforts.
As an organization, we walk beside communities all across the world and engage in meaningful, life-changing experiences. And now we pledge to walk alongside the BLM movement, to turn our words and values into action, and to work toward systemic change within our organization and the camp world.
We hope you’ll walk with us.
AK and The RLT Team