WHAT'S INSIDE: Note From The Director: Linda Ketcham shares thoughts on our values
Meet Shar-Ron Buie ~JustDane's New Associate Director JustDane 50th Anniversary Events: Celebrate our 50th Anniversary with us! Save the dates on your calendar.
Check in with Just Bakery: What have they been up to this summer, and where to buy our goods.
Spotlight of JustDane Values:
a reflective journal about social action from JustDane
Let's talk about Courage!
A Note From The Director... Courage is one of JustDane’s organizational values. From our perspective it is woven throughout everything we do. We see it lived out daily: at both the macro level in terms of systems, community and organizational work, and at a micro level through the work of our staff and the individuals who walk through our doors requesting support. I recently read an article entitled “The Four Types of Everyday Courage” by Dr. Cathy Lassiter, and it resonated with me. While Lassiter is focused on courage within the educational field, it also translates into the non-profit world. The four types of everyday courage are: Moral Courage, Intellectual Courage, Disciplined Courage and Empathetic Courage. Moral Courage includes standing up when an injustice occurs, when someone’s rights are violated, when people are treated unfairly, inequitably. It’s what we practice when we advocate for equitable budgets and an end to systemic injustices that result in racial disparities across every sector of our social systems. These systemic injustices seek to deny people their basic rights and access to healthcare. Moral courage at JustDane is standing up when we advocate at a systems level and standing with and on behalf of our participants. We advocate for fair and equitable resources and recognition of the inherent worth and dignity of every person.
Intellectual courage is challenging old assumptions and making changes based on new research and insights from science, new practices, education, and personal experience. Intellectual courage means we question how we do what we do; continually seek new, factual information; and seek information based on research, which provides us the opportunity to improve. Intellectual courage is also recognizing our own deficits in thinking, knowledge and practice. This includes the work JustDane does in the areas of equity, inclusion, diversity and access. We work to advocate for fair and affordable housing and for justice system reform. We practice it through ongoing self-reflection, training and education, and pushing ourselves to learn more- to do better. Disciplined courage is the courage to focus on issues and on our work despite constant distractions. It’s being reflective and strategic - to achieve our goals and bring about systemic change. Disciplined courage calls us to thoughtfully, purposely do the right thing, even when it’s the more difficult thing to do. It means we stay focused on our goals, that we persist and persevere. It also means we keep our emotions and egos in check, so that we are open to learning from others who may disagree with us. At JustDane it means that we stay focused on our work and, in the words of our former Director Chuck Pfeifer, that we remain “authentic to our mission and vision.” Empathetic courage is the courage to feel deeply for and about others. To put aside biases and assumptions in order to learn something new and to let go of control. According to Lassiter, it’s only when we are willing to listen to a different perspective, and manage to empathize, that we are enriched by a new way of thinking.
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Summer 2023