Do your work meetings start with a native land acknowledgment? Does your colleague's standard introduction include their chosen pronoun? Perhaps yes, and this is a sorely needed positive a reflection of our evolving times, but in our decade plus of community collaborations, these interactions have not been the norm.Both of these examples are a part of a larger movement toward greater equity and social justice; a paradigm that SFUSD embodies more each year.

This district has been a part of our journey since our inception and we are excited to deepen our partnership in the years to come. Not only do they help with funding through our partnership with ASEP, they host regular Teaching Artist Think Tanks to help educators connect and refine/expand their pedagogical frameworks.

We really have to hand it to SF Unified for their continued commitment to investing in arts education for our students. While no district-- or large scale organization-- is perfect, SFUSD is making significant efforts to empower it's students and teachers.

This paradigm-- one that acknowledges existing on stolen land and the power of arts education on developing humans-- informs a level of integrity in the work to educate and shape future generations that is unparalleled in other educational communities. There is no claim of perfection (in fact an open knowingness of being far from), but a constant striving toward greater outcomes like funding for the arts and closing the gap of educational resources for low income families.

Most recently, heARTful KIDS was approved for a scholarship from the SFUSD Arts Department to provide our creativity and character programming to 50 students at no cost to families or program partners for summer 2022. They have also approved professional development funding for teachers to choose from various arts integration and holistic health curriculum trainings. These are not small acts and, we believe, part of a bigger shift toward profound, positive change.

Thank you, SFUSD for working towards a brighter tomorrow one student, one teacher, one community partnership, and one step at a time.