News / News + Updates
CLX Community Statement
Beloved CLX Community,
These last few weeks have been heartbreaking. It’s been horrifying to bear witness to the images and videos of children and young people killed in Palestine and Israeli hostages who are still not with their families.
We recognize that at the moment there is a collective grieving that is impacting our out-of-school time (OST) providers, the youth that we serve, and their families. Although Palestine and Israel may seem like far away places from Chicago, at this precise moment in history, we understand how interconnected we truly are as human beings.
CLX aims to continue to be a collective support for the mentors and providers of Chicago’s youth — all of you youth workers — and we cannot stay silent. Like we did with the righteous uprisings of Black Lives Matter movement and the communal responses to COVID-19, CLX wants to restate our commitment to you all.
In the spirit of our name as the Chicago Learning Exchange, we have gathered some resources from our community and at-large. We also want to affirm that we are here to hold space and provide support for our community members. We encourage you to reach out to any members of the CLX team on Slack or email with input of what might be most valuable for you at this time. We also welcome sharing any examples of practices or resources you’ve found helpful in your work that we might amplify through our network.
To quote a well-known advocate for the rights of children, Mr. Rogers: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
And now more than ever, we are here to help. We remained committed to helping to create a world where all children and the people that care for them are safe from harm.
In collective care,
Sana, Hillary, Liliana, and Lance
Here are resources being shared by our community and at-large: