Border Crossers is mentioned in a New York Times piece titled, “Why Don’t We Have Any White Kids?” on the persistence of racial segregation in the New York City school system. It ran electronically on Friday, May 11 and in full print in the Metropolitan section on Sunday, May 13!

The article focuses on Brooklyn’s Explore Charter school, which is composed exclusively of African American and Latino students, and the role that race plays in the school community. “We need to ‘unpack the issue of race and dismantle stereotypes. The beginning is naming it,” says Border Crossers Board member Alexis Rubin, who teaches at Explore.

Author N. R. Kleinfield attended one of Border Crossers “Talking About Race With K-5” workshops as part of his research for this piece and quotes Executive Director, Jaime-Jin Lewis saying, “you don’t want [kids] to learn about race and class and power on the playground,” on the importance of providing tools for teachers to have explicit and supported conversations about race in the classroom.

“This article shows that, regardless of your own personal take on the issues of the charter school movement, de facto segregation, cycles of systematic advantages and disadvantages, etc. we need to start reframing our discussion of race in school. We need to begin seeing race as a necessary and valuable lens that should be applied to everything from hiring to curriculum, and creating and supporting teachers who are practiced in guiding students in thoughtful conversations about race from a young age, even when those conversations are tough. And, if you’re really having them, they will be tough,” said Jaime-Jin.

Want to learn more about Border Crossers? Join us at our 9th Annual Springtime Gala THIS WEDNESDAY, May 16th at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in SoHo!

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Hello Fellow Border Crossers,

We are so thrilled to share with you some very exciting news!

Border Crossers and Kids Creative are proud to announce that we have been awarded a Collaboration Grant from the United Way of New York City. Only 25 nonprofits in NYC received grants, so we are especially honored.

These collaborative grants are designed to promote coordination between two or three nonprofits. The idea is that, by integrating and streamlining operations, organizations can work more efficiently. Border Crossers has been working with Kids Creative since 2007, so this was a no-brainer for us!

Check out the United Way’s official announcement for more information.

Cheers to our continued partnership with Kids Creative!

Megan McDonell
Border Crossers Board Member

Greetings!

In case you haven’t seen, there were TWO pieces on Border Crossers published in the past week:

ColorLines ran a piece titled, “Here Are Easy Ways to Have Tough Talks With Kids About Race” that was shared over 300 times on facebook and twitter today!

Sachi, Kesha and I collaborated on a piece for the NY Writers Coalition blog called, Crossing Borders!

Please read them and join the discussion on our facebook page!

Cheers,
Jaime-Jin

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Meet Idalia, Border Crossers newest Program Intern! She will be working on several research and evaluation programs to strengthen our professional development programs.

Welcome, Idalia!

Yuriko is a senior at the Facing History School in New York City. She will be interning at Border Crossers for the Spring Semester. Hear her story and why she wants to work with Border Crossers!