Dear King Street Community,
For the past month I have debated whether or not to send you a message about the ways in which federal priorities are impacting our King Street Center community. I’ve watched many of our partners rush to make statements in support of our low-income, LGBTQ+, and immigrant and refugee communities. With good reason. People want to know where you stand and what you stand for.
We have not been one of those organizations. Speaking up and making a statement is a privilege, and it brings great risk for the very communities we are trying to protect.
In the past month, we have seen firsthand the harm recent actions at the federal level have caused. I am certain that the next several years will be difficult for economically insecure families, especially for those who are part of our immigrant communities (of which 85% of King Street Center’s youth and families are). The same is true for our trans and non-binary communities.
It will also be increasingly difficult for the organizations like ours who support these communities. It is critical during this time for nonprofits to take care of their people, inside and outside of the organization. This work brings with it a significant amount of emotional labor and if we cannot take care of our staff as nonprofits, then we cannot take care of our community. This is a commitment that King Street Center has and will continue to reaffirm: our staff matter too.
Some of you have asked me how King Street Center is impacted by the federal funding freeze and on-going threats to nonprofits that serve the communities we do:
Our early childhood education program is a Head Start Program, which is federal dollars.
The nearly 47,000 meals we serve each year comes from federal funding.
All of our families rely on some form of financial assistance from the state of Vermont, many of which rely on federal funding.
Have we been impacted? Not yet. Thanks to our partners – Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, Burlington School District, and all of you – we have not had any disruption in serving our community.
Can I promise that King Street Center and our youth and families will never feel the pain of these deliberate attacks? No. I do not know what is to come. What I do know, however, is that this community is filled with passionate changemakers, like you, who will continue to show up.
We will not let fear decide the fate of our youth, families, community, or this organization. What happens outside of our walls may impact us, but it will not define us. And we will take every step to the greatest extent possible under the law to protect the people who rely on us.
King Street Center will always be a safe place where people can feel supported and find help. It will always be a place that prioritizes youth and works tirelessly to show them they matter and that their future is worth investing in. Nothing will change that.
How do I know this? How could I possibly be so confident in the face of all we’ve experienced in just one month’s time? Well… because of you.
Your support has allowed us to add two new programs in the past year. It has given us the ability to increase wages for our staff. It has shown our community that they are worthy of investment. It has meant being able to serve more youth than we did just 3 years ago.
Your generosity is the foundation on which this Center stands. No people, policies, or politics has ever made us waiver in working towards our vision of every child and family thriving in an equitable community – as we have been for 54 years.
So in the words of Maya Angelou: “You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise.”
Thank you for supporting our youth and families and for allowing them to rise, no matter what may come.
With Gratitude,
