Justice, Equity, and Belonging: A Commitment to Ongoing Learning
Justice
Justice refers to fairness in terms of the distribution of benefits and burdens in society. In a just society, everyone is treated fairly and no one is discriminated against or unfairly disadvantaged. Justice means dismantling barriers (racism, classism, sexism, ableism, and other 'isms') and rebuilding the system to make it equitable for everyone.
Equity
Equity refers to fairness in terms of resources, opportunities, and treatment. It focuses on ensuring that individuals have access to the same resources and opportunities regardless of their starting point. Equity means using resources to adapt to a broken or unjust system. As stated by The Arvana Group, "Equity is the approach. Equality is the outcome."
Belonging
Belonging refers to creating a sense of connectedness, acceptance, and inclusion. It involves creating an environment where people feel valued, respected, and supported for who they are. To create belonging, we must center, value, and amplify the voices, perspectives, and experiences of those who experience more barriers based on their identities.
ECCLA commits to the process of ensuring equity, dismantling systems of racism, and supporting young children, families, and early childhood professionals to have a voice as their true selves in our early childhood system. We recognize that this process will take time for our organization and we commit to continuing to learn more and grow to authentically and responsively support equity, diversity, and inclusion in the early childhood system.
With this vision in mind, ECCLA staff have come together to create the Justice, Equity, and Belonging Collaborative as an advisory committee and a community of professionals who wish to grow together. We invite you to check out our Resource Library as well as read our 2023 Action Plan to learn more about how we intend to cultivate an environment of belonging and inclusion within ECCLA and our early childhood community.
Meet Our Collaborative Members
Shannon Hall
(she/her)
Cameron Fall
(he/him)
Enola Garland
(she/her)
Stephanie Martin
(she/her)
Dallas Brown
(she/her/they/them)
Partnerships & Collaboration
ECCLA envisions an early childhood system that promotes thriving young children, their families, and communities. In order for this vision to become a reality, ECCLA recognizes that we must work with partners to dismantle systemic racism and biases that have been present in early childhood education. To do this, we commit to building and strengthening formal partnerships with organizations that are focused on early childhood and racial justice and learning where we can authentically lend support and resources to lift up the work that dismantles systemic racism, bias, and exclusion in the early childhood system.
We recognize that we cannot do this work effectively without including outside voices and perspectives. We are identifying and reaching out to other organizations, but we may miss some. If your organization is interested in collaborating or partnering to create an environment of justice, equity, and belonging for young children, families, and early childhood professionals, then we invite you to reach out to Cameron Fall.