MASBHA: Black Lives Matter
The mission of the Massachusetts SBHA is to promote the health, resilience and academic success of children and adolescents in collaboration with community partners committed to advocating for student well-being through school based health centers
Black Lives Matter.
The Massachusetts School-Based Health Alliance (MASBHA) stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement to end systemic racism, condemn violence, confront bias and inequity, and promote social justice for all people of color.
The school-based health centers that we support operate at the intersection of education and health care; MASBHA recognizes the complex ways that racism operates within these systems. As an organization, we believe that we must not just mourn the broken foundation upon which our country is built, we must commit to change through working to dismantle institutional or personal responses that continue or promote inequity. We acknowledge the fact that the majority of us who lead MASBHA are white. We need to do better, intentionally engaging BIPOC on the Board to ensure that it is more representative of the communities that we serve, and that the voices and perspectives of all are heard. MASBHA has a role to play in undoing white supremacy, and that undoing requires us to examine ourselves and have honest, uncomfortable and ongoing conversations about power, privilege, biases and perceptions.
We know that systemic racism affects health outcomes of communities and that many of our communities are disproportionately impacted by racialized violence and trauma. We believe students of color should be able to attend school without fear that their behavior will be criminalized and that schools should be safe havens for all students regardless of immigration status. We support students and families as they navigate and respond to their own experiences of racism and injustice in our society.
We cannot be complacent in our response and need to be clear in our statements and actions. Silence at this moment is not an option. This is not the time to get discouraged. It's the time to listen with humility, to learn, and most of all, to show up. MASBHA will stand together with SBHCs and pledges to do better as individuals, as an organization, and as a system to fight the racism around us.