At Washburn Center for Children, we understand the tragic death of Jamar Clark and escalating events in North Minneapolis have deeply impacted the children we serve, their families, our community partners and the greater community. As we have talked and listened to them, we have heard strong feelings of grief, anger, fear, confusion and anxiety. These same feelings have been shared in conversations here at Washburn Center.
In times like this, it is critical to remember our agency mission: helping children with social, emotional and behavioral problems and their families. Now more than ever, we remain focused on our vision to provide hope to children, without question or distinction to age, sex, race, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, color or religion.
As part of the Minneapolis community, we share the fear and frustration of our neighbors. We respect that everyone responds to the recent events and media coverage in their own way, and we acknowledge that they have sparked intense and important conversations about the realities of racism, bias injustice, safety and discrimination. Â We encourage everyone to support one another and create safe spaces to discuss the complexity of this very tragic situation.
Washburn Center believes in the values of diversity, inclusion and justice. When these virtues are not embraced, there is an impact to the mental health and social well-being of our community and the families we support. Going forward, we will increase our commitment to the children and families we serve by deepening our relationships so we can be united on the impact and be stronger advocates of support in North Minneapolis.
As we hold these difficult emotions, our thoughts are with the family and friends of Jamar Clark, those who are peacefully assembling, police officers and the community of North Minneapolis.