A Year in Reflection: Drawing Inspiration from Dr. King

We like to use this time of year, as the nation honors the work and life of Dr. King and the countless others who called on us to create change towards a more just and unified society, to reflect on and share about our work throughout the year.

In many ways, it has been a hard year for schools: for educators, leaders, families, and students. The unhealed trauma of the global pandemic and the stirring of collective consciousness around racial justice, coupled with a false sense of urgency from being able to go back to a normal that does not exist or serve us, has left children and those who care for them exhausted and, in many ways, hopeless. We laughed and cried with many of you this year. We shared together vulnerably and we sat in silence. We witnessed tragedies and shared spaces for mourning.

But it was also a year of being back in classrooms with children and learning spaces with educators, having hard and healing conversations. It was a year of grappling with big ideas and imagining ways to make significant changes that impact our kids, it was a year of examining our own learned ways of being and creating new ways that serve us and then better serve the communities we collaborate with. In many ways, it was a year of hope. "Hope is your superpower. Don't let anybody or anything make you hopeless. Hope is the enemy of injustice,” Bryan Stevenson said. “Hope is what will get you to stand up when people tell you to sit down."

Creating a New Reality

​As we see systems, structures, and ideologies disintegrate around us, ​we are left with the hope that we can contribute towards building a new reality. In that vein, our team did some deep thinking to create a resource that we are so thrilled to share with you: the Tree of Love.​  ​

We drafted the The Roots ConnectED Tree of Love as a way to conceptualize our vision for change; with the ultimate goal of a new reality and what that looks like among members of a society.

With this Tree of Love, we offer a way to imagine the seemingly small ways in which we can build a new reality, considering both our personal work and our collective work in the process.

Our Tree of Love is a tool that can help to identify attitudes, mindsets and behaviors that avoid upholding the foundation of structures of oppression. It is intended to help us envision what attitudes and behaviors are actionable to lead toward dismantling oppression while also working towards a new reality. 

It is not lost on us that the work of social justice is one done in community.  We choose ours wisely and are grateful for the ways we have grown, shifted, changed, and healed, because of all of you.

Warmly,
Sahba Rohani
Executive Director