School of Child and Youth Care Statement of Solidarity

November 6, 2017

Dear CYC students, faculty, staff and sessional instructors,

In response to the disturbing news that anti-Semitic posters were discovered on our UVic campus last month, the President has issued a response denouncing these hateful actions. As a way to amplify and extend the President’s message, I am writing today, to add our voice to those of others across our campus who have come out with statements of solidarity and pledges of action:

• The School of Child and Youth Care is a professional school that is dedicated to dismantling white supremacy, anti-Semitism, colonial violence, racism, misogyny, ableism, homo/transphobia, and cultural and religious xenophobia, through our curriculum, teaching, research, and professional practices
• We acknowledge that we are located on the unceded Coast Salish territories of the Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ nations
• We have a long history of understanding the links between social justice, de-colonization, social equity, and child, youth, family and community wellbeing
• We recognize that we are all differently implicated and embedded in complicated colonial and racist histories and structures of violence
• We understand that Indigenous peoples and other historically excluded groups bear the painful costs of structural violence and oppression every day
• We recognize that forms of oppression are complex, intersecting, and inter-locking and that we must work in solidarity with others to challenge and eradicate practices, policies, and structures that perpetuate injustice, inequity, and hate
• We understand that this is long-term work that will require a diversity of tactics and creative partnerships and we look forward to joining with other campus and community partners to stand against oppression in all its forms
• We call on other schools, departments, and faculties to join us in these efforts
• We reiterate our commitment to make the School of Child and Youth Care a site of relational accountability and community wellness.

If you or anyone that you know is negatively affected by events in our community that perpetuate hate and injustice, we encourage you to reach out to trusted peers, faculty and staff.  These events can have an impact on student wellness and mental health and the University Student Counseling Services is a resource that can support you.

Please feel free to share this message widely. If any of you have questions or concerns about these recent events, or our School’s response to it, please feel free to contact me. 

Sincerely,

-- 

Dr. Jennifer White

Associate Professor and Director

School of Child and Youth Care

Faculty of Human and Social Development

University of Victoria

250-721-7986

jhwhite@uvic.ca