Past Events
Year in Review
Like all of you and most organizations, Threads of Justice Collective have had a challenging couple of years with both ups and downs.
Partnerships
In 2020 we were awarded funds from Social Ventures Partnerships (SVP) International and received a Grant from the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation. With these partners, Impact NW, and the Multnomah County Library we have developed Justice and Inclusion Tool Kits or Learning Modules for early childhood educators and families has been our Program/Project focus at the end of 2020 and through 2021.
We also welcomed two new TOJC Board Members this year: Grace Bounds and Julie (JuJu) Montera, both committed and talented ECE Professionals who share our vision for a more just world for ALL children and families.
PAST EVENTS
Freedom Camp
Every year an annual educational event is held on the Dr. King holiday for children and adults. We teach about the civil rights movement and help children make connections to social justice activism in their communities today.
For FC 2021 with the pandemic raging on, we created and distributed Freedom Camp activity bags available for families to pick up. Our theme was the Freedom Riders, Black Lives Matter Movement, and honored Freedom Fighter John Lewis.
For FC 2020, we altered the format to afternoon only and limited attendance to 75 people. Because of Election Year, our theme was Voting Rights. We also honored and mourned our own recently passed Freedom Fighter, Gary Massoni.
Girl Speak
In the summer of 2018, in collaboration with the Rockwood Center, we offered "GirlSpeak" workshop for girls age 10 -13. The "Girlspeak" curriculum is available at no cost in our "Books and Resources" section.
Donna and Mike McDowell Scholarship Fund
TOJC created this fund in memory of 2 Board Members that we lost to cancer. This scholarship is designated to provide financial stipends for people from marginalized communities to attend the ECE Social Justice Conference and/or to support trainings that will increase the number of people in the Oregon Child Care Trainer’s Registry that have strong anti-bias/anti-oppression backgrounds.
Anti-bias Support Group for Teachers
Inspired by the Jan. 2015 ECE Forum hosted by TOJC, this group met monthly in the Portland area.
Annual ECE Social Justice Conference
In 2019 we partnered with ORAEYC and CCRR to co-host a Fall Conference with a track bringing together early childhood professionals to participate in anti-bias and inclusion through social justice focused workshops. Originally started in 2016, our annual Threads of Justice Conference has been held in January for 3 years.
Part of the workshop offerings featured anti-bias community trainers who participated in a Summer Research Forum on Oppression as Trauma in the lives of young children.
Oppression as Trauma
Summer 2019 we planned held a Summer Forum on "Oppression as Trauma in the lives of young children".
Participants came from around the state to form study groups on forms of oppression as trauma. They developed presentation on the findings of their study and how to participate on various research areas.
Anti=bias Leadership Workshop participants
Anti-Bias Leadership
We have held and facilitated three sessions of our "Anti-Bias Leadership Seminar" in 2018, 2017 and 2016.
Growing Provider Skills and Supports - GPS (S)
“G” Growing “P” Provider “S” Skills & “S” Support. GPS (S) targets support in professional development, new start-up ECE programming, and networking for Providers who serve populations targeted by oppression in our society. We are hoping to grow this fund in the coming years with the possibility of selecting one person each year and supporting their start up costs, a mentor or coach to work with them and allies in business, licensing and professional development. However, to start out right away, our very first objective was to purchase 12 copies of the book “Cultivating the Genius of Black Children” for the African American Family Child Care Network for their study group project, facilitated by TOJC Board Member Hadiyah Miller.
African American Child Care Network
In 2018, we facilitated a book study group of "The Genius of Black Children" by Debra Sullivan.