September E-News

EmpowerMT’s Advanced Leadership Training in October

EmpowerMT is excited to announce that we will be holding another Advanced Leadership Training October 13th and 14th from 9am to 4pm each at the Missiona Valley United Methodist Church (70715 Hwy 93 approx.mile marker 39.5).

The Advanced Leadership Training is an intensive workshop that teaches participants skills necessary for providing influential leadership in ending discrimination, reducing inter­group conflict, and building inclusive communities and organizations. This training is an excellent professional development opportunity as well as being the first step in becoming an official EmpowerMT volunteer trainer. For more information visit our website.

Suicide Prevention Week

Project Tomorrow Montana, Missoula City-County Health Department,  Institute of Health & Humanities,  Providence St. Patrick’s Hospital, Tamarack Grief Resource Center, Missoula Vet Center and other local partners have worked together to create a week of Suicide Prevention September 9-15th. For more information view the flyer or check out theFacebook event.

EmpowerMT LGBTQ+ Panel and Discussion

Empower Montana is teaming up with some awesome LGBTQ+ adults to put on a panel about being a queer person in Missoula’s community. We’re inviting all LGBTQ+ and questioning youth and their parents/allies to join us for a night of knowledge and experience sharing. We want this to be a safe space to ask questions, and learn from our neighbors of all ages. The panel is scheduled for the evening of September 20th, from 5:00 – 7:00pm.

A Minnesota charter school agreed to pay a family $120,000 after the parents of a 5-year-old transgender boy accused the school of violating their child’s rights by failing to protect him against bullies, CBS reported Tuesday.

The civil discrimination lawsuit charges Nova Classical Academy with gender discrimination.The boy’s father said the teachers initially tried to be accommodating, but the school’s leaders got in the way. To save time and money, the two sides settled rather than going to court, with the school agreeing to gender neutral uniforms, policy changes to allow students who don’t identify as their birth gender to express themselves, and staff training on how to best accommodate transgender students, in addition to paying $120,000 to the family. (Continue reading here)
Why the Myth of Meritocracy Hurts Kids of Color

Brighton Park is a predominantly Latino community on the southwest side of Chicago. It’s a neighborhood threatened by poverty, gang violence, ICE raids, and isolation—in a city where income, race, and zip code can determine access to jobs, schools, healthy food, and essential services. It is against this backdrop that the Chicago teacher Xian Franzinger Barrett arrived at the neighborhood’s elementary school in 2014.

Recognizing the vast economic and racial inequalities his students faced, he chose what some might consider a radical approach for his writing and social-studies classes, weaving in concepts such as racism, classism, oppression, and prejudice. Barrett said it was vital to reject the oft-perpetuated narrative that society is fair and equal to address students’ questions and concerns about their current conditions. (Continue reading here)