Dear Ascienzo Family Foundation Family, Red Hook Community, and extended community,
We write to you, late, to express our sadness and outrage over the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks, and countless other Black lives lost to brutality, injustice, and systemic racism. While these names have national attention, we recognize they are an incomplete representation of the unacceptable reality that Black people face across this nation. We stand, as a private foundation and as a team of Directors, with the clear message: Black Lives Matter.
We have been checking in with our community, local organizations, and as a team, ready and willing to participate more deeply in the anti-racism movement. Together, we are committed to action from a place of compassionate presence, commitment to learning, and to taking action steps that are needed for the anti-racism movement to continue sustainably. We will be reflecting on our role and identity as an all white leadership team more critically, and demonstrate our intent actively. Private foundations like the Ascienzo Family Foundation have the opportunity to leverage our own funds, but also our networks and broader communities, to support those fighting for a better future that is equitable and just for all.
Immediate actions our Foundation is committed to include:
Grant opportunities for anti-racism: We are expanding a current mini-grant opportunity that is open to all of our AFF Ambassadors (previously designed solely for COVID-19 relief efforts) to include grants for racial justice efforts in their local communities. This grant opportunity will be effective immediately to include financial support for organizations fighting for racial justice across the country. Our community of 40+ Ambassadors will be able to advocate for these grants, which we will fund immediately upon their advocacy and due diligence.
Local commitments to anti-racism:
The AFF Directors will be making a donation in solidarity and alignment with the #BlackLivesMatter movement to Soul Fire Farm and Nobody Leaves Mid-hudson in the amount of $4,000 each. We will continue conversations among our networks to ensure our collaborations uplift anti-racism efforts locally and nationally.
On Wednesday, June 17th, our team met with other Red Hook leaders and partners from the Human Rights Commission to discuss next steps of our commitment to anti-racism. This was the first of many meetings to draft mission language and a collective course of action relative to Black Lives Matters and anti-racism on a local level. Participants discussed local and regional incidents that have transpired and proposed the creation of a youth board comprised of students at RH, RH alum, & Bard students to engage in open dialogue, however virtual for now, with the public.
Personal reflection as individuals and as a team: We will be doing our work, individually and as a team, to inform our commitment to social justice efforts, notably anti-racism efforts. We know there is a deep intersection of this work with the efforts we’re already engaged with, and we plan to do our part to bring more BIPOC voices into our funding processes in the future. Right now and for so long, the Black community is leading society forward with incredible resilience, passion, and urgency to pay attention now to the realities of racism of how racism operates daily across the country. We realize that our commitment responds to a call from Black people that was long left unheard or even ignored. We are here to follow that incredible leadership, to listen to your calls for action, and to walk together into a better future.
While much attention has been focused on large cities across the country, there is undoubtedly work to be done in our own backyard here in the Hudson Valley and in rural U.S. communities. We encourage you to show up for your communities; whether that be through civil disobedience, resources support, donations, difficult conversations with friends and family, personal commitment to doing and practicing anti-racism work, and bringing your creative gifts and talents to the movement. Our team will be doing the same, individually and collectively, with local leaders.
Some organizing and civic groups in the Hudson Valley area include: Community Voices Heard, Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson, Soul Fire Farm, Rise Up Kingston, Kingston Midtown Rising, End the New Jim Crow Action Network!, Good Work Institute, Brothers at Bard, and North Star Fund. This list is certainly not exhaustive - we encourage you to send us an email if you know of organizations in the area that are doing important anti-racism or social justice work!
As we move forward, we welcome your accountability and checking in, as well as sharing resources, organizations, and calls to action around this work. While much of what we’ve shared above is aspirational and forward-looking, we recognize it comes during an urgent call to action where most of our work will be heads down and behind the scenes. Please let us know how we can uplift the efforts of you or other local leaders, especially from Black leaders in the Hudson Valley area, to continue taking action for the long term. We know this will require dedication of energy and action from all of us.
Thinking of You, as always,
The AFF Family
Nick Ascienzo, Jen Melitski, Fran Thompson, Brittany Mosher, Ali Fraenkel, Sophie Laing (AFF Directors) and Nick Fiorellini (AFF Intern)