Stand Against Racism Past Challenges & Campaigns
2021
Stop AAPI Hate: A Conversation with Leaders on the Frontlines of Awareness and Advocacy
YWCA Glendale and Pasadena’s 21-Day Challenge: Impact Report
YWCA Glendale and Pasadena 21-Day Challenge Impact Report
2020: Stand Against Racism Goes Virtual
The health and safety of our members and community are our top priority. In light of the COVID-19 public health crisis, YWCA Glendale made the difficult decision to cancel the annual Stand Against Racism Roundtable event, originally scheduled for April 28, 2020, and shift the entire week of Stand Against Racism campaign activities to online and social media activities and actions.
2019
April 30, 2019 – Stand Against Racism at YWCA Glendale. The event provided safe and non-judgmental space for honest, reflective conversation with members of the community, including faith leaders from Glendale, Hollywood, Inglewood, and Los Angeles neighborhood council members from the Foothills community.The evening began with networking with local residents with opportunities for them to publicly join our pledge to Stand Against Racism.
We then transitioned into the program by having a “fishbowl” discussion with our speakers. Fr. Vazken Movsesian of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church, Rev. Sherri James of UP Church, Rev. Todd Leonard of Glendale City Church, Shant Sahakian of the Glendale Unified School District Board of Education, and Dannielle Johnson, CEO, of Donut Socialite. The conversation touched on topics such as Glendale’s racial history as “Sundown” town, fostering racial and ethnic unity in our schools, racial reconciliation and healing, and how to create racial and ethnic unity.
In the second part of the evening, participants were invited to join in on the conversation to reflect and talk about the difficult issues–all in the spirit that we are all fellow journeyers. As such, we also reminded ourselves, though it’s hard to remember sometimes, that we are more similar than we are different. Through this exercise we discussed how individual and institutional racism impacts us all, but we also explored ways to promote greater appreciation of racial and ethnic unity, and respect for diversity.
Lastly, participants were asked to place on the wall what actions they’d like to see YWCA take–in order to reaffirm our collective and individual commitments to Stand Against Racism.