YWCA celebrates 10 years of overseeing Reading to End Racism

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Deborah Parks reads to first graders Thursday at Fireside Elementary in Louisville. YWCA Boulder County is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Reading to End Racism program. The grassroots organization was founded in 1998 and merged with YWCA Boulder County in 2013. (Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer)

Shiquita Yarbrough read a book this week to third graders at Fireside Elementary who followed a black third-grade student as she rode her bike through the thriving community of Greenwood before it was destroyed in the 1920s during of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

After completing Opals Greenwood Oasis, Yarbrough told the Louisville school class that black people back then weren’t even considered people and were treated as inferiors. She also spoke about the importance of being allies.

You have the opportunity to improve our future, she said. What can we do differently knowing that we have the power to change the world, knowing that racism is bad?

Yarbrough, Director of Community Engagement and Equity for YWCA Boulder Countys and a member of Longmont City Council, runs the Reading to End Racism program. Reading to End Racism is celebrating its 10th year as part of YWCA Boulder County.

The YWCA began overseeing the long-running program, which sends volunteer readers to area classrooms, in 2013. The program began in the 1990s as a community partnership with the Boulder Valley School District. The aim is for volunteers to use books and personal stories to talk about discrimination.

The basic idea is the same, Yarbrough said. It’s certainly even more important now with the division in our country to have those conversations.

While the program has remained true to its original model, the YWCA has provided more support and infrastructure. One change made by Yarbrough was the creation of more in-depth training for volunteers.

The training, which lasts about four hours, includes a discussion of volunteer biases, an overview of the book’s lesson plans, and ideas for how to answer tough questions from students. They were also taught not to isolate students of color.

We need to be aware of our own biases and issues so we don’t bring them into a classroom, Yarbrough said.

The program also offers an optional parent information session, while students receive a take-home information sheet that includes a summary of the book and discussion questions.

We want to make sure parents can keep the conversations going, Yarbrough said. We don’t want it to just be us who go to schools once a year. I was just planting the seed of kindness. Someone else will come and water that seed.

This year, the program has approximately 20 active volunteers, including several long-time volunteers.

Tedd Davis, retired Microsoft executive and Longmont Community Foundation board member, began participating in the program in 2008. He grew up in Orange County, California, where he was the first black that many of his classmates had ever met. While he was unwelcome at school, his family was unwelcome in their all-white neighborhood.

I can share my experiences to try to help the world become a better place, he said.

By the Fireside on Thursday, he provided fifth-grade students with an information packet including facts, charts and definitions as a starting point for talking about stereotypes, prejudice and racism. Racism, he said, is an attack on a person’s identity.

Were all people, he said. We all have something to contribute. People from different cultures with different perspectives make you better, if you are open to listening to them.

He shared the dangers of lazy thinking, giving examples that included the assumption that everyone with brown skin is Mexican, that all Muslims are terrorists, and that homeless people are lazy.

You don’t have to love everyone, but you do have to give everyone a chance to be themselves, he said.

Fireside English Language Development teacher Shelby Warshaw, who brought Reading to End Racism to the school, attended the session led by Yarbrough. She encouraged the students, most of whom were white, to act as allies.

If you see someone being treated unfairly, you have to stand up for them, she said. If you see this happening, you need to be strong and use your voice.

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